Public transport services resume after seven weeks

With half the capacities, all kinds of public transports, including inter-district and long-distance buses, launches and trains, resumed operation from Monday morning after a long hiatus of around 49 days to curb Covid-19 spread.

Many buses were seen to leave from the capital’s Mohakhali, Sayedabad, and Gabtoli bus terminals to various corners of the country.

The Bangladesh Road Transport Authority (BRTA) issued an urgent notification on May 23, ordering to follow health guidelines after the resumption of public transports.

Hand washing facilities were seen set up at the bus terminals. Many of the staff members of buses were also found to roam around carrying hand sanitizers.

Twenty-eight pairs of intercity and nine pairs of local trains resumed operation across the country on Monday following a government direction to carry passengers half their capacities and without increasing ticket fares.

Many people were seen waiting outside Kamalapur railway station for tickets as they could not manage tickets online. Many of them said they did not know tickets were being issued online.

After visiting Kamalapur railway station, Railway Minister Md Nurul Islam Sujon said, “Trains will follow 100 per cent hygiene rules as you all have seen they had done in the past. Tickets for the trains are only available online.”

Launch operations resumed on the Shimulia-Banglabazar route from Monday morning with a huge number of passengers.

Shimulia jetty sources said passenger pressure and congestion on ferries had declined as they started to cross the Padma river in launches along with ferries.

Although there were instructions for carrying passengers with half the capacities, launches were seen to be overcrowded with passengers on Monday morning. Hygiene rules were not seen to be followed.

However, Shahadat Hossain, Shimulia jetty assistant director of Bangladesh Inland Water Transport Authority’s (BIWTA) Maritime Safety and Traffic Management, said that they were trying to follow health guidelines.

Alamgir Hossain, officer-in-charge of Louhjong police station, said the pressure of passengers on ferries had eased as launch operations began.

BRTA suspended public transport services on April 5 due to the second wave of coronavirus infection in the country. Later, the government decided to allow only the intra-district public transport services from May 6.

BIWTA also stopped launch services on the Shimulia-Banglabazar route from April 5 due to the second phase of coronavirus infection in the country. Only ferries had been operating on this route since then on an emergency basis.

The government on Sunday extended an ongoing countrywide lockdown for one more week until May 30 midnight as the coronavirus infections keep spreading.

The new instructions allowed all inter-district public transports to resume operation with half the capacities and hotels and food outlets to cater to half their seating arrangements.