If the 11-point demand for safe roads and half fare for public transport is not met by December, tougher programmes will be announced from the first day of January, warned participants of the ongoing road safety movement.

Direct train communication will be introduced between Panchagarh and Cox’s Bazar districts, said Railways Minister Md Nurul Islam Sujan last night.

Despite Bangladesh Road Transport Authority (BRTA)’s drive against charging extra bus fares in Dhaka and Chattogram city, many bus operators are still taking higher than the government fixed rate.

Students of several schools and colleges yesterday continued their protests demanding safe roads, justice for victims of road crashes and half public transport fares for students all across the country.

While metro rail operation from Uttara to Agargaon is scheduled to begin in December next year, people have to wait till December 2023 to use the metro to travel to and from Motijheel.

Bangladesh Road Transport Authority fined Tk 57,31,400 to 1,408 buses during a month-long drive against charging extra fares to passengers in Dhaka and Chattogram cities.

Nearly 16,000 people of different unions in Kurigram’s Roumari upazila have been experiencing untold sufferings since the concrete bridge on a canal in Charshoulmari Bazar collapsed only over a year of its construction.

The protests demanding safe roads are still raging on. Students from several schools and colleges of the capital were seen yesterday, carrying placards that stated many of their demands, aimed at ensuring  road safety and ending corruption and mismanagement in the transport  sector.

Bangladesh Inland Water Transport Corporation (BIWTC) has decided to operate 16-hour ferry service between Munshiganj's Shimulia and Shariatpur's Majhikandi waterway.

Even in the incessant rain, students of several schools and colleges took to the street again yesterday in Dhaka and some other districts to demand safe roads.

Hours after transport owners announced that students travelling in buses in cities would pay half the fare, the agitating students yesterday said they want it for all modes of public transport and across the country.

Some students of different educational institutions today staged a demonstration in the capital’s Shahbagh demanding announcement of issuing a gazette notification for half bus fare across the country without any conditions.

Half fare for students in public buses will be effective from December 11 in Chattogram city.

At least 54 students were killed in crashes on roads across the country last month, according to a road safety campaign. 

Transport owners in Chattogram city have accepted the demand of introducing half bus fares for students in principle.

Allow students to travel at half fare on all modes of public transport by road, rail and waterways, Jatri Kalyan Samity Secretary General Mozammel Haque Chowdhury demanded today.

The performance test between Uttara and Agargaon, the first phase of metro rail line, is expected to be conducted on December 12.

While the construction work of a rail line from Chattogram to Cox’s Bazar is going on at speed to bring the tourist town under railway network, Bangladesh Railway has also started the preparatory work for operating railway services on the new route.

The pothole ridden Zirabo-Bishmail road in Ashulia, Savar is in an extremely poor shape, causing immense suffering to the commuters.

The Anabil Paribahan bus that ran over and killed SSC examinee Mainuddin Islam in the capital’s Rampura on Monday did not have a route permit.