The government has moved to ease the ongoing road transport crisis through operating 30 BRTC buses on two strike-hit routes yesterday as the private bus owners continued their strike for the fourth day.
Twenty buses of state-owned Bangladesh Road Transport Corporation (BRTC) started plying on Dhaka-Mymensingh route while 10 others operated on Dhaka-Tangail route, BRTC officials said.
But the move was very minimal as hundreds of passengers suffered waiting for buses at different bus terminals.
“I came here hearing about the BRTC buses leaving for Mymensingh. I am waiting for about two hours but yet to see any of those,” said Khandaker Saiful Alam at Mohakhali Bus Terminal. He is a sales manger of a mobile phone operator company.
Usually, about 600 buses ply on Dhaka-Mymensingh route a day while 250 buses run on Dhaka-Tangail route, according to transport owners.
Transport owners stopped bus service on Dhaka-Mymensingh route on Thursday, citing the highway has become impassable.
Later the strike widened on Dhaka-Tangail and Dhaka-northern district routes. At present, the strike remains enforced at 31 routes from Dhaka to different northern districts.
Meanwhile, Communications Minister Syed Abul Hossain is scheduled to visit the run-down highways today and will sit with transport owners to find out a solution to end the strike.
BRTC officials claimed their buses did not face much trouble plying on the Dhaka-Mymensingh and Dhaka-Tangail routes, while the private bus owners noted the damaged roads are still unfit.
“We didn’t find any improvement in the roads’ condition, although the government is claiming of repairing those,” Md Abul Kalam, president of bus owners’ association of Mohakhali Bus Terminal, told The Daily Star.
Also yesterday, transport owners and workers met with Shipping Minister Shahjahan Khan at his parliament office to discuss the road transport situation.
The minister asked them to increase awareness among the drivers to check accident and enhance monitoring system to ensure none drivers a vehicle with a fake licence.
Kamalapur Railway Station
In absence of bus service, hundreds of passengers thronged the Kamalapur Railway Station to reach their destinations. Many illegal ticket brokers took it as a chance to earn some extra money by arranging tickets.
A retired bank manager SM Hazrat Ali was looking for a ticket to Tangail. He had to confront with scores of passengers desperately trying to buy tickets in a long queue in front of a ticket counter.
While he was in despair, a woman approached him and offered help in exchange of money. As Ali paid her Tk 100, the cunning woman went to a less-crowded women’s counter. By that time, the Tk 60 Tangail ticket had run out and the woman managed to buy a Tk 130 ticket of Natore for him.
Mymensingh Railway Station also experienced a huge rush of passengers yesterday, reports our correspondent. People were seen collecting tickets of Balaka Express, a train run by a private operator.
The train has 196 seats but the demand for tickets is more than 1000 since the strike began, said Rana Islam of the ticket counter.
Many passengers alleged the railway employees of the station are charging extra money from passengers taking illegal advantage of this high demand.
However, Station Master Abul Kalam Azad denied the allegation.
-With The Daily Star input
