PATNA: The open invite by Bihar State Tourism Development Corporation (BSTDC) to the people for a free cruise to the kite festival from January 14 to 17 resulted in the huge turnout in the Ganga riverine area opposite the NIT Ghat and the boat tragedy in which 24 people lost their lives on Saturday.Eyewitnesses told TOI on Tuesday that the two government ships, CL Kasturba and M V Kautilya, were engaged in ferrying people to the riverine area. Kasturba is owned by the Inland Waterways Authority of India (IWAI) and hired by the BSTDC whenever needed. It has the capacity to ferry 350 people per trip. On the fateful day, Kasturba was always docked over 900 feet away from the jetty near the kite festival site because of shallow water there. That's why people gathered in large numbers at the tragedy site to board the ship and country boats, said Sabbalpur Raipur Hasan villagers who were working on their nearby fields that day. "It was due to this reason that people gathered at the spot expecting ships to pick them up," they said."The arrangements for free ferry of people on ships, dahi-chuda and khichdi by tourism department attracted more crowd than previous years," said Paltan Rai (65).Kasturba made several trips to diara from Gandhi Ghat but when it was time to carry the revellers back, the ship returned to Gaighat. "Kasturba, on its first trip, tried to disembark people near the makeshift jetty but failed because of shallow water. Moreover, the jetty was later shut after it got damaged due to overload," said camel owner Jitendra Kumar Singh Rathore (48), adding that in search of a suitable docking place with proper depth, Kasturba disembarked people several times at the spot where the boat sank. He also said the announcement made that ships won't ply anymore also panicked the visitors.Another villager Anil Kumar said had Kasturba made a few more trips, the pressure would have eased. He also said till last year, people on city side were stopped from going toward diara at 2pm, but this year their movement was allowed even till 4pm.Though Sonepur circle officer Anuj Kumar, in his FIR, has blamed an illegal private amusement park at the spot and overloading on the ill-fated boat as the reasons behind the tragedy, villagers said the park was not opened yet and the ship stopped carrying people back to the state capital side.

Stay updated with all the Latest Patna headlines here. For more exclusive & live news updates from all around India, stay connected with NYOOOZ.