Transport crisis hits CU students

Chittagong University (CU), the country's only hillside university, often attracts tourists for its geographical location, but its students find it hard to shuttle from the port city to the campus everyday just for lack of adequate transport facilities.
Set up in 1966 on 1257 acres of and at Hathazari upazila, 22 kilometers north of Chittagong city, the university has got nearly 18,000 students, including 5,000 girls, about 700 teachers and 1700 staff.
It has four shuttle trains and bus services to transport students from the port city to the campus and from the campus to the city from 7:00 am to 11 pm, but these are too inadequate for these huge students, faculties and staff to comfortably shuttle everyday. The girl students are the worst sufferers.
But the problem is apprehended to aggravate further in near future, as the number of students in the university is increasing fast.
Recently, leaders of Chittagong University Teachers Association (Cuta) demanded that the transport facility for the faculties and the students be increased for proper functioning of the country's third largest university.
Cuta leaders at a recent press conference urged the authorities concerned to take immediate steps for expanding the CU transport network and constructing a four-lane road from Oxygen to Hathazari for removing traffic congestions.
When contacted, CU Proctor Prof Jasim Uddin said the university authorities had been negotiating with the Bangladesh Railway for having more shuttle trains for the students, but it might take time.
“We know, transport problem is hampering the academic activities of the students, but the university authorities are doing their level best to expand the transport facility for the students. A positive response from the railway authorities may help address the problem to a large extent,” he said.
Cuta President Prof Dr Mohammad Kamal Hossain said that the university authorities were planning to introduce an alternative transport service for the students apart from the shuttle train service.
Sources said though the university came into being in 1966, neither the university authorities nor the successive governments have ever paid heed to develop a relatively dependable and adequate transport network for the students. It has been enhancing the intake volume over decades without thinking about the required transports for these students to travel to the campus.
In the wake of student movements and pressure from different corners, the university authorities in cooperation with the Railway authorities launched the shuttle train service in 1980. Over the last two decades and a half, there has been no effective move either to create alternative transports for the students or modernizing the existing train service.
Over 13,000 students travel to the campus and return to the city everyday by only eight trains of six coaches having seats for 150 students each. A good number of students take their trips on rooftop of the coaches for lack of adequate space inside the compartments, putting their lives at risk.
Mahmudul Hasan Mamun, a third-year student of Accounting and Information System, was killed at Sholoshahar Railway station in the city while trying to get on the rooftop of a train last year.
Another student, Sabikunnahar, of Bangla Literature was killed in another accident on August 2006, as he tried to get into a running university shuttle train.
“I take train to travel to the campus from the city and I have to keep standing for hours together for lack of seat. So, sometimes I take the risky trip on rooftop,” Shahadat Hossain, a student of Communication and Journalism, told the UNB correspondent.
Nurul Islam, a senior student of the university, lamented, “The CU authorities have arranged at least 16 big luxurious buses for the faculties and officers in an effort to solve the transport crisis, but the students are always neglected.