Fitness Drive Creates Bus Crisis in City
Untold sufferings to commuters
At 8:00am last Sunday, college student Lufunnesa Lota was waiting at the Taltala bus stoppage for a bus to go to her coaching centre at Farmgate. After over two hours, she returned to home since her coaching schedule got over even before she could catch a bus.
Commuters' standing long hours to get a bus is an everyday scenario at Taltala bus stop.
The similar scenario is found in the city's major bus stoppages include Farmgate, Kazipara, Agargaon, Khilkhet, Joar Sahara and Shahbag.
Standing long hours during peak hours at Taltala is a regular characteristic for bus goers like us, said Shajeda Sarkar, a developer company employee at Motijheel.
Bangladesh Road Transport Authority's (BRTA) recent drive to abandon the use of 20-year old and unfit buses has intensified the sufferings of the city's commuters.
BRTA has strengthened the drives since February 11 keeping the World Cup rush hour in mind, BRTA Director (enforcement) Tapan Kumar Sarkar told The Daily Star.
While visiting Farmgate this correspondents found that nearly two thousands commuters were standing at different spots to reach their destination. Over 100 people were in a queue for only getting an Uttara-bound bus Belal Enterprise.
Nikunjo resident Muhibur Rahman said he had been waiting for over an hour and half for the bus of Belal Enterprise. “This is not the scenario of today only, but we go through this hassle almost everyday."
Within an hour, about 20 buses came to the stop of which most were BRTC's Uttara and Mirpur bound buses while the number of local buses was six to seven.
Whenever a local bus is sighted, people were found apparently fighting with each other to get on the bus. The hassles are even more for the women, children and elderly persons who often get pushed back in the queue by the male passengers.
A BRTA statistics shows around 5,308 buses were running on 161 routes in the Dhaka metropolitan area till October 10, 2010, while the number of commuters recorded was 3,437 on 108 routes.
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