Ramshackle transports on rundown roads!

A fleet of nearly 20,000 unfit vehicles are set to ply the roads amid a rush ahead of two major festivals. The matter is all the more worrying as many highways are also in run-down conditions, observers said.      
Apart from escalating fears of mishaps, severe traffic congestions on the dilapidated highways like Dhaka-Mymensingh, Dhaka-Tangail and Dhaka-Chittagong routes already have put homebound people into abject sufferings.  
Such flabby vehicles--buses, minibuses, and microbuses-which carry passengers in district level and within Dhaka city, have already started ferrying people bound for ancestral homes to celebrate Eid-ul-Azha and Sharadiyo Durga Puja.
The two close-set festivals are taking place between September 30 and October 6, resulting in great rush.
An official at Bangladesh Road Transport Authority (BRTA) told the FE that nearly 60,000 registered buses and minibuses carry people across the country.
He informed that apart from the registered buses, more than 20,000 unfit buses, minibuses and microbuses ply the inter-district roads to book a windfall following a huge demand for transport tickets.
Faruqe Talukder, president of Bangladesh Bus-Truck Owners Association (BBTOA), said the number of passengers usually rises threefold ahead of Eid vacation. But this year Eid and Puja are commencing in a close time. And this came as "a great opportunity for the unscrupulous vehicle owners".
He said the BRTA and the highway police will have to take stern action against and give exemplary punishment to such vehicle owners.
Haji Razzaque Mian, who owns five of Dhamrai-to-Gulistan buses, told the FE that all his vehicles have been booked for going to Sirajganj and Bogra from October 2 to October 5.
"The busses will leave Gabtoli as per the contract with an inter-district bus operator," he said.
Md Kamrul Islam, the driver of a Manikganj-Dhaka-route bus, said most of the buses are unfit or half-fit in-between Manikganj and Dhaka.
"We hardly ply 150 to 200 kilometres the whole day by giving the buses rest several times as those are more than 20 years old," he said.   
"But the owners are now giving such buses on rent to travel long distances like Sirajganj, Bogra and Rangpur districts. So the buses unfit for inter-district transportation can be defunct anytime on highways," he said.    
Khandaker Enayet Ullah, secretary-general of Bangladesh Sarak Paribahan Samity, an association of private transporters, pointed out that those unfit and unregistered vehicles do not enter the capital.
"Their trick is to pick passengers from the city's key exit points," he said about the ruse that involves risk of life.
However, Road Transport and Bridges Minister Obaidul Quader recently said unfit vehicles would be barred from entering the capital to avoid gridlocks during Eid and Puja.
He said he had already asked the leaders of transport owners and workers' organisations to make sure that unfit vehicles were not used to carry sacrificial animals, too.
"When a vehicle carrying animals gets stranded on the road, it causes gridlock. This is why no unfit vehicle should be allowed to enter or leave Dhaka," the minister said.
Consumers Association of Bangladesh secretary Advocate Humayun Kabir Bhuiyan told the FE that home-goers face abject sufferings during Eid vacations as the overall carrying capacity of transport falls short of the actual requirement.
He said about 2.5 million people usually leave Dhaka per day and the number increases two and a half times in last three days before Eid.
The government and the private sector combined are not fully able to meet the total requirement of transport, which makes people helpless and they try to take a desperate ride home.
He said railways and waterways could ensure safe journey for people at less fares and more capacity.
"The passenger-carrying capacity of the BR should be increased to at least 1.0 million per day from the present 0.12 million in next few years," he added.
A good number of people started leaving the city through different ways from Wednesday. The rush will increase threefold from today (Thursday), operators said.   
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