Commuters had a harrowing time on Saturday morning as the indefinite transport strike across Bangladesh of bus owners and transporters entered the second day.
The bus, truck and van owners decided to go on a strike from Friday in protest against fuel price hike in Bangladesh.
According to a report of United News of Bangladesh, in Dhaka, all buses — intra and inter-city —and microbuses stayed off the roads for the second day in a row. People travelling to and from distant areas as well as the office-goers were the most affected.
In many areas of the city, people were seen waiting on the roads, desperately looking to hail ride-sharing cabs and shared autos to reach their destination.
Several commuters complained that the auto and cycle rickshaw drivers were taking advantage of the situation by overcharging them. ‘Auto drivers are demanding double the fare. It’s a nightmare for us,’ said an office-goer.
Uttara Rajlaxmi traffic inspector Akteruzzaman said, ‘I have not spotted a single bus on the roads since morning. Only cabs, private vehicles and autos are plying.’
Garment workers suffered on the day as the transport strike called by the owners and workers of public transport and goods transport continued demanding cancellation of the increased prices of diesel and kerosene.
People were seen waiting at the different points of Chattogram city including Bahaddarhat, Muradpur, GEC circle for the transport to go office.
Abdul Matin, an employee of a factory at Chattogram EPZ, was seen waiting at about 7:30am at Muradpur area for bus to go to office.
He told New Age that he was waiting for bus since 6:30am in the area. He was not sure whether he would be able to reach office in time.
Shaheda Akter, a garment worker in Kalurghat area, was waiting in Bahaddarhat area from 6:45am and she failed to manage any transport to go to her work station till 7:20am.
However, CNG-run autorickshaw, tempo and rickshaw were seen on the roads. Some minibuses were also seen running on Muradpur-New Market route.
Golam Rasul Babul, secretary general of Chattogram district unit of Bangladesh Road Transport Workers Federation, told that they continued their strike protesting at the government decision of increasing the price of diesel.
Md Abdul Mannan, president of Chattogram Divisional Goods-Laden Transport Owners Association, told that they were not transporting goods from Chattogram to other districts. No goods were transported to and from Chattogram port.
On Thursday, Convenor of Bangladesh Truck-Covered Van, Tank Lorry and Prime Movers Owners and Workers Coordination Council Md Rustom Ali announced their decision of going on an indefinite strike, following an emergency meeting.
Leaders of the Council said the government raised the toll tax for using Bangabandhu Bridge and Muktarpur Bridge from 257 per cent to 300 per cent ‘illogically’ on November 2 and then it raised the prices of fuel.
‘Transport services had remained suspended for a long time due to Covid in the past two years. When the transport owners are trying to make a turnaround from their huge losses caused by the Covid-19 shutdown, the decision of raising the bridge toll and fuel prices was announced,’ the council said in a statement.
On Wednesday, the government raised the prices of diesel and kerosene to Tk 80 from Tk 65 at the retail level.
In a statement, the ministry of power, energy and mineral resources said that Bangladesh Petroleum Corporation had been incurring a loss of Tk 20 crore per day as it was selling diesel at Tk 13.01 lower per litre and furnace oil at Tk 6.21 per litre, lower than their imported prices’.
It said that the petroleum prices had been readjusted against the backdrop of price hike of petroleum in the international market.
