Unfit buses get repaired for brisk business ahead of Eid

A number of outdated and virtually unfit buses get repaired and painted as owners want to do a brisk business ahead of Eid ul Fitr by arranging up and down journeys for home bound passengers, ignoring the risk of running such vehicles in highways.

Usually, from the fag end of holy Ramadan, people working in the capital and other cities go to their village home to celebrate Eid with their near and dear ones.

But many of them face a bitter experience in bus terminals as the number of running buses is usually too inadequate to meet the increased demand.

Taking the opportunity, owners of very old buses earn windfall profit by arranging journey by the buses after some repair as the passengers are out to go home even if they have to pay double or triple the usual fare, said sources.

Uthowainu Chowdhury, assistant director of Bangladesh Road Transport Authority (BRTA) in Nilphamari, said, "More than 70% buses in the district are without any fitness certificate. Before Eid, owners of many of these vehicles get them repaired to carry passengers, defying risk of fatal accidents."

Visiting different bus repairing workshops in Nilphamari and Saidpur, workers were seen repairing cracks in buses with galvanizers, replacing broken window glasses, sewing seats and painting the bus bodies.

"This bus will appear as new after the painting work is complete," said Faruk Mistry, a worker at Adani More repairing workshop in Saidpur municipality.

"Ahead of Eid Every year, we repair 8-10 old buses to make them fit for carrying passengers in long routes. We take Tk 30-40 thousand as fee for repair of each bus while the owners supply spare parts," said Bablu Mia, owner of the workshop.

Such an old bus usually carries 45 passengers in seats and 20-30 others who have to keep standing.

During the rush period for around two weeks before and after the Eid earning of an outdated bus owner often reach Tk 12 lakh to 14 lakh as much more than usual fair is realised from homebound and return passengers, sources said.

Afzal Hossain, owner of an unfit bus in Nilphamari, said, "We are helping passengers to reach home as the buses run by government owned BRTC and non-government transport companies are unable to tackle the crowd of Eid time passengers."

Md Waznabi, traffic inspector of Nilphamari police, said, "We regularly launch drives against unfit vehicles but sometimes law can't be implemented properly in view of transport crisis, especially during the Eid holidays."