Hartal stalls long-distance buses from leaving capital
Wednesday, 1 December 2010
FE Report
Buses of long-distance routes did not leave the capital Tuesday due to BNP-enforced hartal (strike) despite several transport worker associations' firm assurance of keeping inter-district vehicular movements normal on the day.
Authorities of the highway buses said they have cancelled their schedules for the day fearing a large-scale hartal-related violence as the country had witnessed in a number of occasions in the past as the pro-strike activists always targeted the passing vehicles.
Leaders of some transport worker groups for the last several days said they would not join the strike and would operate their transports on the day according to the schedule.
An employee of Shyamoli Paribahan said they shut all of their counters in the capital after informing their passengers that their vehicles would not ply because of the shutdown. "We'll resume the postponed bus journeys from tomorrow (Wednesday)," he said.
Ticket counters of most of the highway buses around the capital were seen closed, causing immense sufferings to the passengers who were waiting for hours in the city's three bus terminals.
Meanwhile, communications on the rail and water routes have not been hampered by the hartal as most of the trains and water vessels have departed and returned with a few passengers to the capital in time.
The station master at Kamlapur Railway Station said three trains had left for Chittagong, one for Noakhali, one for Dinajpur, one for Jamalpur and one for Brahmanbaria till noon while three trains, coming from Brahmanbaria, Jamalpur and Chittagong, arrived at the station at the scheduled time.
"But the number of passengers declined to 50 per cent for the strike," he added.
According to Bangladesh Inland Water Transport Authority (BIWTA), six launches have departed for their destinations from Sadarghat in the morning.
Buses of long-distance routes did not leave the capital Tuesday due to BNP-enforced hartal (strike) despite several transport worker associations' firm assurance of keeping inter-district vehicular movements normal on the day.
Authorities of the highway buses said they have cancelled their schedules for the day fearing a large-scale hartal-related violence as the country had witnessed in a number of occasions in the past as the pro-strike activists always targeted the passing vehicles.
Leaders of some transport worker groups for the last several days said they would not join the strike and would operate their transports on the day according to the schedule.
An employee of Shyamoli Paribahan said they shut all of their counters in the capital after informing their passengers that their vehicles would not ply because of the shutdown. "We'll resume the postponed bus journeys from tomorrow (Wednesday)," he said.
Ticket counters of most of the highway buses around the capital were seen closed, causing immense sufferings to the passengers who were waiting for hours in the city's three bus terminals.
Meanwhile, communications on the rail and water routes have not been hampered by the hartal as most of the trains and water vessels have departed and returned with a few passengers to the capital in time.
The station master at Kamlapur Railway Station said three trains had left for Chittagong, one for Noakhali, one for Dinajpur, one for Jamalpur and one for Brahmanbaria till noon while three trains, coming from Brahmanbaria, Jamalpur and Chittagong, arrived at the station at the scheduled time.
"But the number of passengers declined to 50 per cent for the strike," he added.
According to Bangladesh Inland Water Transport Authority (BIWTA), six launches have departed for their destinations from Sadarghat in the morning.