Members of a family, who came to the capital for medical treatment, waiting at the Kamalapur Railway Station on Monday with their male guardian standing in a long queue to procure tickets for return home. Railway-stations experienced heavy rush of passengers due to the transporters' 48-hour nationwide strike — FE Photo by Shafiqul Alam The 48-hour transport workers' strike crippled trade and communications for the second day on Monday, taking a heavy toll on all kinds of economic activities.
Overall commodity supply chain has been severely disrupted, export-import activities have been halted, and transportation of goods to and from all seaports and landports have stopped due to the strike. Prices of major essential items have shot up due to total supply stoppage.
Daily loss due to the strike called by Bangladesh Road Transport Workers Federation (BRTWF) is estimated at more than Tk 2.0 billion, according to sources.
BRTWF enforced their 48-hour strike on Sunday to press home their eight-point demand, mainly to amend some provisions in Road Transport Act (RTA).
The demands also include withdrawal of the provisions of non-bailable offence, fine of Tk 500,000, and educational qualification of Class VIII for driving licence.
The 48-hour strike is scheduled to end at 6.00 am on Tuesday. But the transport workers have threatened to go for another 96-hour strike, if their demands are not met.
A spokesperson of BRTWF told the FE that the federation has given the government a 21-day timeframe for meeting their demands. If not, they will go for fresh strike for 96 hours next month.
BRTWF General Secretary Osman Ali said, "Our programme will end at 6.00 am on Tuesday for now. We will give the government a notice. If it does not meet our demands within 21 days, we will enforce a 96-hour strike."
He further said BRTWF will submit the notice to Ministry of Road Transport and Bridges on Nov 03.
Meanwhile, plying of all kinds of buses and goods-laden transports remained halted during the two-day strike.
But, vehicles of app-based ride sharing services, mainly motorbikes, took advantage of the situation, but also provided respite to passengers.
Buses of the state-run Bangladesh Road Transport Corporation (BRTC) were also on the streets, and gave some support to common commuters.
Business community and experts criticised using this kind of strike programme as a tool to create pressure on the authorities concerned.
They said change in the mindset of the strike-calling group as well as the government is needed to continue supporting the country's growing economic activities.
Chittagong Customs House (CCH) earns revenue amounting to Tk 1.5-2.0 billion per day by handling export and import items.
"Delivery and release of all goods from the customs house are stopped, as no truck and lorry entered the port during the strike," said CCH Commissioner Dr A K M Nuruzzaman.
According to Bangladesh Garment Manufacturers and Exporters Association (BGMEA), transportation of goods of more than Tk 85 million takes place, which gets halted due to the strike.
Benapole landport also earns daily revenue of around Tk 310 million that is also stopped.
Trade-bodies and various rights groups have expressed their resentment over the strike, and called upon the workers to join their work by withdrawing strike.
Federation of Bangladesh Chambers of Commerce and Industry (FBCCI) in a press release has expressed its deep concern over the prevailing transport strike.
The apex trade-body also urged all concerned to sit together, and solve the problems through discussion for the sake of the nation and the country's economy.
Passenger Welfare Association of Bangladesh in a statement also urged the transport workers to withdraw their strike programme for the sake of lessening public sufferings, as mass people, including students and patients, are becoming victims of the situation.
President of the association Mozammel Haque Chowdhury urged the transporters not to put the governemnt in an odd situation ahead of the national election keeping the nation hostage, and resolve the problems through discussion.
Dr Khondaker Golam Moazzem, Research Director of Centre for Policy Dialogue (CPD), criticised the strike as a tool of realising demand, as its impact on the economy is huge due to continuous increase in the size of the economy.
He said impact of the strike on the economy is severe, as it affects domestic and international supply chain.
Dr Moazzem suggested the government to focus more on enforcement of RTA, by taking various programmes for awareness building and training for all concerned.
"If the provisions, whose amendments are being sought by workers, are practiced worldwide, then awareness, training and rewards etc will help the transporters refrain from launching this kind of undesirable programme (strike)," he added.
Our correspondent adds from Chattogram: Movement of cargoes between the Chittagong port and off-docks remained totally suspended for the last two days due to the transport strike.
Movement of all sorts of cargoes from 19 inland container depots to the main seaport was halted by the transport strike.
Sources in the ICDs (Inland Container Depots) said 7,000 trucks and covered vans, scheduled to arrive in the ICDs from the port with import cargoes, could not get there in the last two days.
The cargoes include industrial raw materials, rice, wheat, pulses, mustard seed, raw cotton, wastepaper, animal feed and its components, soda and many other import items.
Secretary of Bangladesh Inland Container Depots Association (BICDA) Ruhul Amin Sikdar told the FE on Monday evening that shipment of export goods had been halted as no cargo could have been dispatched from ICDs to the vessels bound for the transhipment ports of Singapore, Colombo and Port Kelang.
He said 4,000 TEUs (20-foot long) of containers laden with export cargoes from across the country could not be dispatched to the vessels in last two days.
"Transhipment vessels don't wait beyond their cut-off time in a port because they have to reach the mother vessels in Singapore, Colombo or Port Kelang for shipment of the same to countries of export destination in Europe, America, Canada and other countries."
He also said 3,000 covered vans and trucks laden with import goods could not be delivered to the importers.
"A three-day halt in the overall export and import activities of the country will take at least 20-25 days to cover the damage as per our estimate," he added.
A leader of Prime Movers Association in the city informed the media that their vehicles started entering the port to take delivery of containers from 5:00 pm on Monday.
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