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Bus owners, workers in conflict with CDA

New Ctg bus terminal lies idle
CHITTAGONG, May 30: The Bahaddar Hat bus terminal completed six months ago with all modern facilities at a cost of Tk 3.5 crore remains idle and the Asian Highway continues to be Jammed by a huge number of Inter-district buses, minibuses, coasters and trucks, reports UNB.
The reason is the insistence of the bus owners and workers unions to get its lease on their own terms which the Chittagong Development Authority (CDA), the owner of the terminal, has termed Irregular, unfair and unacceptable.
The project was taken up for Implementation on urgent basis in 1989-90 with CDA's own resources in response to persistent demand by commuters and travellers from outside the busy metropolis to free the highway of the constantly vexing traffic Jam.
Buses and coasters plying south and east to Cox's Bazar,
Bandarban and Kaptai were to be removed from the one kilometre long section of the highway at Bahaddar Hat.
The construction work was completed in January this year, and the CDA decided to lease it out to raise Tk 10 lakh a year, which amount It said, would be less than half of the total annual collection by the leaseholders.
Th6 money, the CDA Chairman Col Motahar said, would be spent for maintenance of the terminal and to undertake similar development projects for the benefit of the citizens and travellers.
He said It would be a violation of the rules and huge revenue loss for the CDA to have agreed to the unreasonable demand of the workers' union which formed an Action Committee to resist operation of the terminal.
The action committee was demanding Its lease to them for five years for a small
amount of Tk two lakh and freedom to determine toll-rate themselves.
The CDA proposed to lease out the terminal for one year and fix the toll Itself to be collected from each vehicle. "Change the rules," the action committee suggested at the latest meeting, saying "or the terminal will not be allowed to operate and the Aslan highway will be kept logged.
Terming the suggestion as "ridiculous”, the CDA chairman said there were 1500 buses and coasters In the Cox's Bazar and Kaptai routes. If only Tk 10 was collected from each bus, the total collection would stared at Tk 20/25 lakh per annum.
Then again if the terminal was permanently leased out to the workers union, allowed discriminatory toll cpllcctlon. a situation similar to that at Sayedabad and Gabtali bus terminals of Dhaka, would be created, he said.