A vessel should not sink immediately after the collision
Design of passenger vessels should be checked properly before its approval alongside following the design thoroughly to make it safe and heavy ones to avert river accidents, reports BSS.
The country witnessed launch accidents frequently due to number of reasons including faulty design of vessels, overloading, adverse weather and collision, Professor Dr M Rafiqul Islam, Head of Department of Naval Architecture and Marine Engineering of Bangladesh University of Engineering and Technology (BUET) said this while talking to BSS.
He said a vessel should not sink immediately after the collision because in general the vessels are provided with bulkheads in such a way that even if a compartment is flooded due to collision or grounding the vessel would remain afloat.
“But in our country, we find that ships capsize within minutes of collision due to some serious technical faults in the construction where mainly water tightness in bulkheads is not maintained because of faulty welding,” he added.
“We would be able to reduce vessel accidents if we check design of vessels properly before its approval and follow the design rightly,” Prof Rafiq added.
Prof Rafiq said since 1981 approximately 500 river accidents have taken place and out of which 44 percent vessels face accident due to overloading and adverse weather and 39 percent face accidents due to collision and remaining 17 percent due to physical failure, excessive current and others.
Vessels below 60 metre are more accident prone, so we will have to put our effort for this range of vessels, he added.
“Our research suffers seriously due to inadequate facilities like a ship model testing centre (Towing Tank) by which performance, stability, resistance and sea-keeping of a ship is tested,” Dr Rafiq said.
Such facility would not only help the remedial measures in case of any faulty design but also contribute towards enhancing overall safety aspect of inland ships’.
Establishment of a Towing Tank will help to produce knowledgeable, competent and skilled manpower in shipbuilding and which will eventually help Bangladesh to get shipbuilding nation in the globe, Dr Rafiq added.
Source: News Today
