BHOLA, Nov 28: November 26 was the Coco-4 launch tragedy day. On this day in 2009, with home-bound people on the occasion of Eid, Coco-4 launch got capsized in Lalmohan Upazila. It sank near Nazirpur Station at 11 pm. A total of 83 passengers died. The communication of Bhola with Dhaka and other parts of the country is mainly launch-based. But most of the launches flying in different routes of upazilas to the district are small and defective. Due to over-loading and amateur driving, accidents occur. The 83 dead passengers included 46 of Lalmohan, 32 of Char Fasson, 2 of Tazumuddin, and 3 of Daulotkhan. Despite repeated demand, safe launches have not been introduced in all routes of Bhola. Not only in the Coco-4 capsize, but also in capsizes of MV Nasrin, ML Upadwip and Samia launch accidents, hundreds of passengers died.
From seven upazilas of Bhola, over 100 launches of different types, small and big, are plying Dhaka-Barishal-Laxmipur routes everyday.