Long-route bus operators expressed worries about about highway traffic management and said that the government should improve the situation to make Eid-time travel comfortable for home-goers.
They said that home-goers would face problems on their way to outlying areas from the capital during Eid, likely to be fall on August 9 or 10, subject to moon sighting.
The bus operators, however, think that they could ferry people between destinations safely if Eid holidays would become a little longer
‘The Eid holiday should be increased so that home-goers could travel between destinations safely,’ GM Siraj, who owns a big bus company and is a member of the Bus and Truck Owners’ Association Trust, said.
Luxury bus operators said that they have started facing traffic congestion on highways.
‘We have already decreased the number of buses plying long routes to maintain our schedule,’ Abu Bashar Khan, deputy manager of Shohagh Paribahan, said.
On the Dhaka–Chittagong route, Bashar said, buses full of passengers often get stranded for two to three hours at Sayedabad and Jatrabari in the capital.
He suggested an improvement in traffic management before and after Eid.
The Highway Police, however, held reckless driving responsible for highway accidents that cause sudden congestion.
Many bus operators asked the drivers to have patience on the road while some other operators have introduced modern equipment to monitor their drivers to ensure passenger safety.
In addition, the sudden rainfall that continued for a couple of days has worsened the highway condition, which the government
recently repaired in view of Eid.
Field-level officer of the Highway Police also said that they had started facing trouble as many highways stretches had already been damaged by the rainfall.
‘The roads required another round of repairs before Eid as continuous movement of heavy vehicles also added to road damage,’ the Highway Police additional superintendent (east zone) Md Asfiquzzaman Akter told New Age.
The bus operators have also become tensed about traffic congestion that they witness every year at Chandra and Joydevpur on their journey from Dhaka to destinations in the north, and at Kanchpur, Mainamati and Mahipal on the Dhaka–Chittagong route during Eid.
The bus operators said that the management of Bangabandhu Bridge should speed up formalities related to tolls.
Subol Saha, manager of Hanif Enterprise, said that the number of ferries also needed to be increased at the Aricha terminal to avoid congestion.
The New Age correspondent in Manikganj said that the authorities were plying nine large and three small ferries at the point.
Three more small ferries will be added a few days before Eid, the officials said.
Government officials concerned have, meanwhile, started holding meetings with the districts administrations in Dhaka and the Highway Police to improve the highway traffic management to ensure hassle-free travel for home-goers.
The Tangail district administration held a meeting on Sunday. The Comilla district administration will hold a meeting on Monday, officials said.
Md Asfiquzzaman Akter, however, said that the Highway Police had already stepped up activities to tackle Eid-time rush.
Run-down vehicles will to be removed immediately from the highways during the days when the rush would peak, the officer said. An adequate number of wreckers have been engaged in this connection.
Akhter said that the Highway Police had been instructed to hold patrol. He said that additional policemen in cooperation with Ansars and volunteers would be deployed at all strategic points of routes from Dhaka to outlying areas on July July 30. The deployment will be in force three days after Eid.
The bus operators advised home-goers to leave the capital before August 5 to avoid any hassle.
-With New Age input
