Howrah-Kolkata ferry services were suspended indefinitely from Wednesday afternoon after employees of the Hooghly River Water Transport Cooperative Society Limited stopped work over an unpaid Puja bonus and alleged salary arrears, disrupting 16 routes used by around 15,000 passengers every day.
According to a report by Sangbad Pratidin – Kolkata, ferry operations were stopped from 2 pm on October 14 across routes connecting Howrah and Kolkata, as well as other crossings along the Hooghly. The suspension comes shortly before the Puja period, when passenger movement between the two banks is expected to increase, including for visitors travelling to see festival installations.
Among the affected services are the Howrah-Chandpal and Ramkrishnapur-Chandpal routes. Ferry operations from Howrah to Armenian Ghat, Ahiritola, Shobhabazar and Bagbazar were also reported to have stopped. Services on the Nazirganj-Metiabruz, Gadiara-Geokhali, Nurpur and Bauria routes were similarly suspended.
Employees told the publication that the authority had not paid the Puja bonus this year, despite such payments being made to the cooperative’s permanent and temporary workers in previous years. They also alleged that two months of salary had remained unpaid for five years. The employees said they had repeatedly approached the authority over the bonus but had not received it.
Chandan Bhowmik, an employee at Nazirganj ferry ghat, said the workers had been compelled to stop ferry services during Puja after the bonus was not paid. His statement, as reported by Sangbad Pratidin, links the service disruption directly to the employees’ unresolved payment demands.
The cooperative’s administrator, Nikhat Parvez, said the administration had heard the employees’ concerns and was informing higher authorities about the issue. The statement did not indicate when services would resume or whether an immediate payment arrangement had been reached.
The cooperative currently operates about 15 small and large launches across the 16 routes, according to the report. With the crossings serving an estimated 15,000 passengers daily, an extended suspension could affect regular commuters as well as Puja visitors travelling between Howrah and Kolkata. The next operational step will depend on the response of the higher authorities and the resolution of the employees’ payment concerns.
