Drivers protest toll rate hike

FE Report
Auto-rickshaw, rickshaw and van drivers lay siege to the second Buriganga Bridge for about two hours Tuesday demanding an end to toll collection by the lessee from the next fiscal year.
Witnesses said nearly 500 demonstrators occupied the southern wing of the bridge at around 9:00am snapping road communications between Munshiganj, Nawabganj, Dohar and Faridpur with the capital.
Many of the out-going and in-coming passengers left their transports and crossed the bridge on foot to avail transports to reach their respective destinations.
South Keraniganj thana Officer-Incharge said traffic movement resumed at around 11:00am after the demonstrators withdrew their siege. "The protestors observed the programme peacefully," he said.
During the blockade a large number the vehicles crossed the river by the Postogola bridge that caused unusual traffic congestion in the area, a traffic official said.
Rickshaws and vans are charged Tk 2, while auto-rickshaws Tk 10 as toll for crossing the Buriganga bridges.
People employed to collect toll money at the bridge said they could not change the government fixed rates. They however, said sometimes they took less than the fixed rate.
One of the employees said they were collecting Tk 2 instead of Tk 6 from the rickshaw and van drivers and Tk 10 from the auto rickshaw drivers instead of Tk 15.
Aganagar union Awami League unit president Asbarul Hasan Ashu said the toll rate in the Second Buriganga Bridge has been unofficially raised recently.
"We condemn the move," said Mr Hasan, also convener of the Second Buriganga Bridge Toll Free Action Committee.