Shutdown brings miseries for commuters
Many were forced to ride motorcycles or take CNG-driven auto-rickshaws, paying fares much higher than the usual rate
Commuters in the capital faced acute problems on Sunday as the nationwide hartal called by the BNP and Bangladesh Jamaat-e-Islami led to a scarcity of public transportation, with only a handful of vehicles hitting the roads.
The number of commuters was also lower compared with other regular days due to the strike but the few buses that ran on the day were overcrowded.
Government-run BRTC buses operated as usual, but that was not enough to meet the demand.
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Those who left home for office or urgent work had to wait for hours for public transport. Many of them were forced to ride motorcycles or take CNG-driven auto-rickshaws, paying fares much higher than the usual rate.
However, the number of passengers from Dhaka to other districts was very low due to hartal which led to only a handful of long-haul buses leaving the capital from Mohakhali, Sayedabad and Gabtoli bus terminals.
There was limited traffic on the Dhaka-Gazipur highway especially around Uttara, Tongi and the Airport area.
A similar scene was seen at Mohakhali, Sat Rasta, Moghbazar, Farmgate, Karwan Bazar and Banglamotor.
Whenever a bus appeared, passengers were seen making frantic attempts to get on it. To capitalise the situation, CNG-run auto-rickshaw drivers charged double the usual fare.
Ariful Islam, a private institution employee, said failing to get on to a bus for around two hours, he had to hire a CNG-run auto-rickshaw for Tk450 to reach his office at Badda.
After waiting approximately 40 minutes, Antora Khanom, another commuter, said she managed to catch a bus at Kalyanpur at around 8:45am to reach her office at Gendaria.
From Kalyanpur to Shahbag intersection, the road appeared almost empty. Between 11:00am and 11:45am, less than five buses were seen plying.
The Savar-Ashulia road was deserted from early morning. After 12:00pm, most of the buses operating on various routes from Savar-Ashulia to the capital Dhaka were seen running with one-third of their usual passengers.
"Due to the violence that occurred in the capital yesterday, many bus owners and drivers are keeping their vehicles off the roads today out of fear," says Sohel, the managing director of Savar Paribahan, which operates on Nondon Park–Sadarghat route.
Counters of various bus routes like Abdullahpur and Tongi to Narsingdi, Bhairab, Brahmanbaria, Kishoreganj, Mymensingh, Tangail, etc were seen closed in the morning.
With the increase in the number of city buses in the evening, the long-haul buses also started departing.
Buses run normally, claim owners
The owners, who announced that they would operate buses defying hartal call, claimed that the buses were running normally over the country, including the capital. They also blamed a lower number of passengers behind a lower operation of public transport.
Khandaker Enayet Ullah, secretary of the Dhaka Road Transport Owners Association, said that the owners took out the vehicles but the number of vehicles was low due to the lack of passengers.
In a press conference on Sunday, he said that some vehicles were torched and staff members were killed, which created some fear. He added that they will continue to keep the traffic normal during similar programmes in the future.
