Eid exodus leads to public transport shortage in capital

A shortage of public transport has created in the capital as buses plying the city roads left Dhaka with holidaymakers.

Those who could not go home till Friday, have left their workplaces this morning with people seen walking towards terminals and railway stations due to the shortage of public transport inside the city.

Apart from holidaymakers, city dwellers have to go to different places by CNG, rickshaw or motorbike with higher fares than usual due to the lack of buses.

After visiting Mirpur, Shyamoli, Badda, Malibagh, Kawran Bazar, Banglamotor, Mogbazar, Shahbagh, Gulistan, Motijheel, our correspondent found that the crisis of public transport was extreme.

As a result, many people are travelling to their destinations via CNG, microbus, rickshaw, and bikes, paying 3-4 times more than usual.

Several passengers said that the public transports were carrying extra passengers and there was no space to stand inside.

Sabbir Hossain, who came to Gulistan in a CNG-run auto-rickshaw from Mirpur, said he could not get on the bus and rented CNG for Tk800 instead. "Now I will leave Dhaka by car for Barishal," he added.

He expressed discontent over the transport crisis during Eid and requested the concerned people to pay attention to it.

Azam, who left for Barishal on Saturday (9 July), said he was able to get in a local bus from Tongi at 7am but had to remain standing for almost the whole ride.

Despite paying almost three-fold than the usual, he said he was relieved to be able to use public transport even though he was upset about the fare.

Many have expressed similar views on the public transport crisis, overcharging and suffering of passengers during the Eid exodus.

They say that during Eid, millions of people are leaving Dhaka, but local transport owners are exploiting the city-dwellers.

The government should strengthen the monitoring system in this regard. Otherwise, the suffering of ordinary people will only increase, they remarked.

When asked about the allegations of overcharging, Ayat, Bihanga, Balaka, Tanjil and several other transport supervisors said that the fare is a bit higher every time during Eid.

"Everyone is charging extra fare, we are following too. This is nothing new," they said.

Milton, a supervisor at Ayat Paribahan, told The Business Standard, that most of their buses have gone out of Dhaka for trips, so there is a bus crisis.

Everyone asks for Tk5-10 extra during Eid, it is quite the norm here.