Extra fares irritate commuters in city

Daily commuters and travellers in Dhaka continue to suffer due to a lack of buses for the second day following the government orders not to fill up more than half the seats to contain the coronavirus outbreak.

They complain that the bus operators have created an ‘artificial’ crisis to charge more fare than the government-fixed ones. The government clamped restrictions on the number of passengers buses can carry, and raised fares by 60 percent to cover the losses of the transporters, effective from Wednesday.

Commuters waited for hours for transports on the first day of the restrictions as the bus operators kept the gates locked after taking passengers at half the capacity. Rickshawpullers and autorickshaw drivers also raised fares.

On Thursday, scores of people seeking to travel to their destinations stood in long queues in Dhaka’s airport, Mohakhali, Kakrail, Shahbagh, Paltan, Press Club and Gulistan areas.

Angered by the lack of public transport, passengers blocked the Khilkhet road in a show of protest.

They complained that transport owners and workers were taking advantage of the curbs set by the government to create a “fake crisis” and charge twice or three times the amount of fixed fares.

Besides reimposing curbs on assembly in a set of 18 restrictions, the government ordered the transporters to comply with hygiene rules amid a new surge in coronavirus infections across the country.

The minibuses operated by private companies have around 50 seats each and they take standing passengers on normal days. The pressure of commuters has not changed with the workplaces open and the office-goers found themselves in trouble.

Commuters failed to get on any bus after waiting for hours and, subsequently, blocked the Khilkhet road around 9am, causing long traffic congestions in the stretch of Airport Road.

Things got back to normal after the police helped everyone get on buses, said Mizanur Rahman, a bystander.

Khilkhet Police Station OC Munshi Sabbir Ahmed said angry commuters gathered under the Khilkhet footbridge blocking the road.

Saiful Aslam, a bank employee who travelled to Gulistan from Mirpur, said he had to wait around an hour to catch a bus and pay Tk 70 in place of Tk 30.

“I would have hopped on even if they charged Tk 10 more. I think an artificial crisis has been created to charge additional fares.”

Mohammed Jashim Uddin, who arrived in Kakrail from Tejgaon, alleged the same. “We pay Tk 10 to travel to Kakrail intersection from Tejgaon. I took a ride with Gazipur Paribahan, who always charges Tk 10 as fare. Today they took Tk 30.

“I found a bus after waiting for half an hour, paying more fare on top of that. I think they reduced the number of buses to charge more money,” he said.

Travelling from Gulistan to Sadarghat, Muzahid Hossain said, “Bus fare was Tk 5. It’s supposed to be Tk 8 now, but they are charging Tk 15.”

Around 10am, at least 50 people were seen standing in front of Khilgaon Police Outpost with no bus in sight. According to the commuters, bus conductors used to call out for passengers to get on board, but that was no longer the case.