Howrah ferry services were suspended indefinitely on Wednesday after workers of the Hooghly River Water Transport Cooperative Society began a work stoppage over two months of unpaid wages and pending Puja bonuses, disrupting movement between Howrah and Kolkata during the festival period.
The suspension affected about 14 ferry ghats in Howrah, including services used by daily commuters and people travelling to see Puja installations. The stoppage began from Wednesday afternoon after workers demonstrated near the ferry ghat adjoining Howrah railway station on Tuesday, according to a report by Anandabazar.
Workers said around 250 people are employed by the cooperative and that they have not received their salaries for the past two months. They also said the non-payment of wages had created severe financial difficulties for their families ahead of the festival. The report said the ferry network normally operates services from Howrah to Golabari, Shobhabazar, Baghbazar, Chandpal Ghat, Armenian Ghat and Prinsep Ghat. Waterway services also operate from Howrah’s Bau ria and Nurpur areas.
The disruption has particular significance for passengers using Howrah railway station, one of the city’s largest transport interchanges. The ferry routes provide an alternative connection across the Hooghly between Howrah and several parts of Kolkata. With services stopped during Puja, passengers who would ordinarily use the river routes must rely on other modes of transport, although the source report did not provide details of alternative arrangements or the scale of additional road traffic.
The protesting workers claimed that the cooperative earns several lakh rupees from ticket sales at its 14 ghats during the Puja period. They argued that the revenue could have been used to clear their outstanding wages. This claim was made by the workers and was not independently quantified in the report.
The cooperative currently does not have an elected managing board. An assistant registrar of cooperative societies from the Howrah district cooperative department is functioning as its administrator, the report said. A senior official holding additional responsibility for the elected board had previously said that the Kolkata Port Trust, the state transport department and the district council receive substantial amounts from the cooperative as rent. According to that explanation, those dues would have to be cleared before workers’ salaries could be paid. The issue of the Puja bonus had not been resolved.
No response from the cooperative’s representatives was available after services were suspended, according to the report. The duration of the stoppage and the conditions for resuming ferry operations remain unclear.
