Strike spells misery for Ctg commuters

Jalal Uddin went to Karnaphuli Shah Amanat Bridge area in Chattogram yesterday morning as he was supposed to travel to Chandanaish upazila for work, but to his surprise he saw no public bus leaving from the makeshift bus terminal.

After asking around, he found out that a strike has been imposed on the southern Chattogram routes along with Cox's Bazar and Bandarban districts.

Like Jalal, hundreds of passengers got stuck due to the sudden strike enforced by the transport owners and workers' organisations.

Their demands included prohibiting buses from operating without route permits and stopping three-wheelers and human hauliers from operating on highways.

Although the strike was called for two hours from 10:00am to 12:00pm, passengers said no bus had left since morning, and they had to suffer at the makeshift terminal waiting for buses for hours under the scorching sun.

Bahaddarhat bus terminal was shifted to Karnaphuli Shah Amanat Bridge area temporarily under a tripartite agreement between Chattogram Development Authority, Chattogram Metropolitan Police, and the terminal management committee on August 23, 2011.

It was shifted to the outskirts of the port city to ease traffic congestion, said CMP and CDA sources, adding that the bus terminal was supposed to be re-shifted to Bahaddarhat area in 2014, but has yet to be done.

There are no waiting facilities for passengers in the current makeshift terminal, so passengers suffer on a regular basis.

However, transport leaders claimed that their strike was a pre-declared and well-circulated one. 

"We have informed the media about the strike and sent press releases to them," said Mohammad Musa, general secretary of Arakan Sarak Paribahan Shramik Union.

"Buses without permits regularly operate on 20 routes of Chattogram, Bandarban, and Cox's Bazar," he added.

"We have informed the high officials of police and BRTA about illegal vehicles operating on different routes and the risks of three-wheelers operating on highways, but they are yet to take action against it," said Mrinal Chowdhury, president of Bangladesh Sarak Paribahan Shramik Federation (East Zone).

He said this at a human chain organised by the transport organisations in the area. 

Asked about the demands of transport leaders, Amir Khasru Bhuyan, assistant director (general) of BRTA, Chattogram, declined to comment on the issue.

CDA chairman Jahirul Alam could not be reached for comment.