Buriganga river is a prominent river from Dhaka. The capital of Bangladesh is located beside this famous river. The name Buri Ganga means Old (female) Ganga. In ancient time the river Ganga (Ganges) used to fall in bay of Bengal through this river (one of the many rivers). But now a days the course of the river has shifted and it is really hard to link this river with Ganga. That’s why this days it is known as Buriganga. You can read more about from wikipedia.
In Past all the major communication (including trading) with Dhaka used to happen through this Buriganga river. Since the evolve of the road communication the use of the river became limited. Now a days only the southern part of Bangladesh uses this river as a medium of communication. In fact in my opinion an overnight journey between Dhaka and Southern Bangladesh on a ship through this river is the most relaxing journey. Most of those cruise ships departs from the Sadarghat.
Biologically the Buriganga river is dead as it is extremely hard to have any ecosystem due to over pollution. It is really sad that we have killed this river by dumping all the wastage. Polythenes, excrete of tannery and other factories had literally killed this river. The sewage and other discharge of the Dhaka city is connected to this river. The toxic level of the river is so much that it could cause skin disease if you take a bath on this river. During the dry season (i.e. winter or summer) the river water gets black in color and also produce a very bad odor. It becomes really difficult to go near the river that time.
But during the rainy season the river gets its youth again. The flow from the upper stream clears the dirt of the river for a bit that time. The water is not that much dirty that time and become a very nice place for a boat journey. There are hundreds of small boats available which helps people to link between both the banks of Buriganga. It just takes few minutes to cross the river with 10 Taka per person. I have done that small boat journey many times. You could hire those boats for hourly or half hourly basis if you want.
There are several bridges available over the river Buriganga. In my opinion the sunset from those bridges are one of the best sunset observation from Dhaka. You could go to any of the bridges and watch the sunset from there. I normally use the bridge near Babu bazar for the sunset. You could also able to see numerous of boats, ships are passing under the bridge. Remember, best time to visit is rainy season, which could be July – October.
Bangladesh government has taken several initiatives to revive the Buriganga river. But it seems those were not enough. We need more serious action to make the river alive again.
Ahsan manzil and several other Old Dhaka attractions are located beside this Buriganga river. You could visit them before or after visiting this river.
This article has written by Lonely Traveler,
for the blog http://alonelytraveler.com/
