The Bangladesh government yesterday suspended two shipping ministry officials and served show-cause notices on three others for the May 3 ferry disaster, claiming over 450 lives.

The shipping ministry suspended Shafiqur Rahman, an inspector of the director of shipping and A.K.M. Fakhrul Islam, a ship surveyor, for negligence of duty, officials said.

They said the ministry also issued notices to three other officials, including the chief inspector Rajen Lal Biswas, the chief engineer, and surveyor Motiur Rahman.

Shafique, Fakhr and Motiur Rahman were among the four who were blamed for the disaster by a probe body.

Besides, the authorities have cancelled the registration and route permit of MV Salahuddin-2, the ill-fated vessel that sank in the river Meghna carrying about 500 passengers.

They are preparing to file a case against the ferry's owner, a ministry official said.

A four-member inquiry committee accused four officials of the department of shipping of gross negligence on duty, the vessel's owner of deviating from its original structure plan and the captain of the vessel for overloading it.

A 24-page committee report submitted to the shipping ministry on Monday stated the causes of the accident as well as recommendations to avert such disasters in future.

The report said the MV Salahuddin-2, overloaded with more than 400 passengers, was caught in a storm in the river Meghna. It capsized within seconds as it tilted and failed to regain stability.

The report recommended that from now on all vessels must be built with watertight hatches to prevent such disasters.

The shaky vessel hit by the storm blowing at over 60 kilometres an hour was further destabilised when passengers from the lower deck climbed on the upper decks to escape the water flooding into the ferry. An inspection of the vessel also revealed several large holes in the steel plates, eroding at many places, reducing the plate thickness.

It also said surveyors of vessels did not have the ultrasonic thickness gauge, necessary to measure the thickness of plates.

The report said the on-duty inspector of shipping, Mohammed Shafiqur Rahman, was grossly negligent in his duty. He failed to lodge any case against MV Salahuddin on charges of overloading as the vessel left the Sadarghat terminal for Rangabali, with over 400 passengers.

Engineer and Ship surveyor A.K.M. Fakhrul Islam, stationed at the Sadarghat terminal, failed to point out the many structural deviations of the vessel.