Sources at the Department of Shipping said that faulty designs as well as deviation from approved design account for the frequency of ferry disasters.

"The practice of getting approval of the design before construction of a vessel in our country is hard to find," a high official of the Department of Shipping said on condition of anonymity. Usually the design is drawn and submitted for approval once the ship is built, he said, adding that a section of owners manages to get the designs approved at a backdate with the connivance of the government's naval architects, supervisors, and surveyors.

The government-assembled panel of naval architects approves the design of a passenger vessel too quickly to take every aspect of the ship into consideration, said sources.

Besides, hardly any of the government-appointed architects visits the spot while a ship is being built based on an approved design. Many launch owners take advantage of this situation to deviate from the original designs, he added.

A recent investigation by The Daily Star has found that only a few architects are engaged in the job of approving the designs of motor launches. Only five architects approved designs of more than 75 percent of 142 vessels registered with the government in a one-and-a-half year period.

ANM Badrul Alam, one of those five architects, had alone approved designs of as many as 57 motor launches, which were registered between January 2003 and June 2004.

A few architects managed to approve so many vessels in such a short period because the vessels were built long before the designs were approved, he said.

According to naval architects, it is impossible for an architect to carefully examine so many designs in such a short space of time.

Recently, an influential leader of Bangladesh Launch Owners Association (BLOA) built a vessel that was not based on a government-approved design. The vessel plied on trial during the last Eid-ul-Azha, while its design was approved just a few weeks ago, said a source.

He is now trying to get the vessel surveyed and then registered for regular service, the source added.

Officials at the government's Vessel Survey Office told The Daily Star that they mainly examine whether the vessel was built according to approved design. "What can we do if the design itself is faulty?" asked an official.

He admitted that a large number of vessels were registered without proper surveys due to shortage of surveyors as well as pressure from various quarters. But now the surveyors are more careful, he claimed.

The shipping department at a meeting last Wednesday decided to make it mandatory for the passenger vessels, which are less than 50 meters long and have triple decks, to have a ballast weighing 20 percent of their total weight, since this would help them to maintain balance during rough weather. Captain AKM Shafiqullah presided over the meeting attended by the high officials of the shipping department.

The government asked the launch owners yesterday in a circular to install the ballast by March 25. The vessels that fail to abide by the decision would not be allowed to ply after the deadline, the circular read.

"The number of ferry accidents will be reduced after installing the extra weight," Captain Shafiqullah, director general of shipping, told The Daily Star. He said he had visited a number of passenger launches after the MV Moharaj disaster, and found many of them in bad condition.

The decision of adding extra weight to vessels less than 50 meters long was taken as an emergency step. Gradually, such weight would be installed to other vessels as well.

The number of passenger vessels less than 50 meters long is around 100 in the country. The installation of the extra ballast will cost about Tk 50,000 a vessel, said sources.