City dwellers on Saturday faced a serious transport crisis for the lack of local buses, as most were converted to inter-district services carrying homebound people ahead of Eid-ul-Fitr.
The number of local buses plying the city streets was very thin since the morning, leaving many commuters to suffer long waits for transportation and forcing many of them to reach their destination on foot.
Especially, the office goers were the worst victim to join their office and return home since the banks and some private offices remained open on Saturday.
Taking the advantage of the sudden transport shortage in the city, passengers alleged that the bus operators, rickshaw pullers and the CNG auto-rickshaw drivers were charging excessive fares.
A leader of the Dhaka Road Transport Owners’ Association said the number of buses was decreased in the capital as maximum city buses started carrying home-bound people, especially the garments workers towards northern and other districts from Thursday night.
“Many of the buses that run in Dhaka went to the different districts carrying the homebound people to make some ‘extra trips,'” he said.
The city dwellers who were waiting to travel the city smoothly in absence of traffic gridlock on the occasion of eid as in the past have got frustrated due to the shortage of transport.
“Usually, the city becomes commuter-friendly with fewer traffic jams a couple of days before eid amid the mass exodus of holidaymakers. But I have become disappointed as I have to wait 40 minutes to catch a bus for coming to Mouchak from Badda area,” Shafiqul Islam, a private job holder, told UNB.
Abdus Salam, an official of a private bank, living in the Basabo area, went to his bank branch office in Gulshan-2 by a rickshaw due to the shortage of bus services in the city.
“After waiting for around 35 minutes to get a bus, I hired a rickshaw with exorbitant fare to go to the office in Gulshan-2. Reaching the office, I saw an overloaded bus was coming from my area.”
Anis Ahmed, who works for an NGO, waited for an hour at Mirpur-11 bus stand to catch a Motijheel bound bus at around 3:30 pm.
Later, he rented a CNG-run auto-rickshaw to reach his destination. “The CNG driver charged an excessive fare, but I had to hire it having failed to get a bus of ‘Bikolpa Auto Paribahan.”
Omar Sharif, an official of a private company, said that he failed to get a bus at the Mohakhali bus stand after waiting for 30 minutes to come to Moghbazar. “Finally, I had to reach my destination on foot.”
“Not only me, but also many other city dwellers went through serious sufferings due to transport crisis. It took more than two hours for one of my friends to come to Gulshan by riding a rickshaw and then bus from the Airport area though there was no notable tailback on the road.”
Ashrafuzzaman, an official of Alif Paribahan, said they usually operate 250 buses in the city and its outskirt. “But two-third of our total buses left the city on Friday for different districts, especially for the northern region, carrying garments workers. These buses will return when those people return to Dhaka after enjoying the Eid vacation.”
Similarly, buses of many other transport operators have also been carrying long-route passengers to meet the huge transport demand of home-bound people. “That’s why, the commuters in the capital are facing an adequate transport crisis,” he said.
The Eid vacation will begin on May one (Sunday) but most of the holidaymakers have already left the city. Homebound journeys are comparatively smooth this year than the recent years.
Source: United News of Bangladesh