Transport owners suspend operation on Dhaka- Tangail highway for battered road condition
With the transport strike on Dhaka-Mymensingh highway entering the fourth day, inter-district bus operators yesterday suspended their service indefinitely on Dhaka-Tangail highway protesting severely battered road condition.
Bus and minibus owners’ association announced the strike at a press conference in Tangail Press Club yesterday saying that vehicular movement on the highway has become impossible due to numerous potholes and damages all along the 90-km Elenga-Baipail stretch.
The highway – from Elenga to Rabna Bypass, and Karotia to Abdullahpur via Kaliakoir and Baipail — is badly damaged due to the heavy rains in the last several days.
According to the transport leaders, the damages on the highway are causing frequent accidents. They demanded immediate repairing of the highway and that it is made four-lane in place of existing two-lane.
They said that they would ask the transport associations of northern districts to also suspend their operations.
Vehicles of 23 destinations, including 16 of the country’s northern region, ply the Dhaka-Tangail highway.
Meanwhile, Communications Minister Syed Abul Hossain yesterday claimed that the government has already undertaken brick-soling works to repair the damaged roads and fill up the potholes to restore communications between the capital and northeastern districts on an emergency basis, reports UNB.
“We hope we will be able to achieve the goal before Eid-ul-Fitr,” he said.
The communications ministry had sought allocation of Tk 1,410 crore last year for repair and maintenance of roads and highways, but it only received Tk 50 crore last year and Tk 57 crore this year, which are too inadequate for the mammoth task, said the minister, adding that the repair of Dhaka-Mymensingh highway requires about Tk 200 crore.
He said he would meet the finance minister today [Sunday] to seek immediate disbursement of the required fund.
Meanwhile, the railway authorities yesterday added four compartments to two intercity trains to tackle the heavy rush of passengers in the face of bus strike on Dhaka-Mymensingh highway, reports our Mymensingh correspondent.
Transport operators of the route went on an indefinite bus strike from Thursday protesting poor road condition in Gazipur.
According to railway sources, Dhaka-bound local and intercity trains now have to carry over 6,000 passengers every day due to the strike.
The sources said the additional compartments of Teesta and Brahmaputra intercity trains, which run between Dhaka and Jamalpur via Mymensingh, have made room for 272 more seats easing the tremendous rush of commuters.
However, passengers alleged that railway employees are overcharging them exploiting public suffering.
Abul Kalam Azad, master of Mymensingh Rail Station, denied the allegation.
Mymensingh Zila Nagorik Andolon, a civil society body, held street rallies and distributed leaflets in the town yesterday demanding immediate repair of the highway and introduction of special trains to ease the public suffering.
Courtesy of The Daily Star
