The administrative decision on the movement of half of the total number of buses is being criticized by different sectors as well as by mass people in the country.
Terming it wrongful, they said this type of decision will intensify the risk of corona infection and sufferings to mass people as well.
According to them, when the number of transports is half, the pressure of mass people on the transports will be double and, therefore, mass people will have to struggle double to get into a bus.
In this circumstance, the bus owners and employees might collect extra fare from the passengers.
This decision is being criticized as when launches and trains have been allowed to carry passengers with half of their capacities, a different decision has been taken on the buses as bus owners and employees have been asked to carry with its full capacity of passengers.
Meanwhile, Bangladesh Road Transport Owners' Association has urged the government to withdraw the decision of operating half of public transports on the roads from August 11. The association has already issued a press release in this regard on Monday.
The release said, it will be very hard to ascertain how many buses an owner has or how many buses he runs across the country. On the other hand, the workers will remain unemployed and their misery will not reduce. The owners will be affected too.
"Transport movement will resume after a long period. What will happen to the person who owns only one vehicle? There will be a crisis of public transport and huge pressure of passengers if only half of the public transport operate on the roads. Also, there will be a risk of virus transmission among the people," the release said.
It should be mentioned that the Bangladesh Railway (BR) decided to operate 38 intercity and 20 commuter and mail trains from tomorrow (August 11) with full capacity.
Half of the tickets will be sold online while the rest will be available at counters from 8:00am tomorrow, said Sardar Shahadat Ali, additional director general (operations) of the BR.
Earlier in the day, Cabinet Division issued a circular stating that buses, trains, and launches could carry passengers at full capacity.
It should be mentioned that the Ministry of Railways has decided to operate 38 pairs of intercity and 20 commuter/freight trains from tomorrow (August 11) following the government’s announcement to ease the ongoing lockdown.
The ministry in a circular on Sunday said it has decided to operate passenger trains on all of its routes with a few exceptions following health guidelines until further directive.
The ministry, however, said intercity trains Ekta Express, Sundarban Express, Nilsagar Express and Rangpur Express will not operate from Dhaka on August 11, while Tongipara Express will not operate from Gobra.
It said 50% tickets of intercity trains will be sold online and through mobile apps while the remaining 50% will be sold from Monday 8 am.
In the case of any negligence in maintaining health rules while operating the trains, legal action will be taken against the authorities concerned, the ministry said.
The movement of passenger trains has remained suspended across the country since July 23 after the government re-imposed the stringent lockdown amid a massive surge of Covid cases.
The passenger trains were allowed to move for eight days from July 15-22 across the country keeping 50% of the seats empty apparently to facilitate the movement of people ahead of the Eid-ul-Azha.
Meanwhile, the Cabinet Division issued a circular saying that the government has decided to allow all public transports to operate at full capacity across Bangladesh from August 11.
