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Road, riverine transport network virtually collapses

Pankaj Karmakar and Shaheen Mollah
The road and riverine transport network between Dhaka and different districts of the country virtually collapsed yesterday, the day before the BNP's grand rally.
Bus services of long distance journeys and inside the capital remained almost suspended since morning. Owners feared vehicular damage due to political unrest and were also trying to stop police from requisitioningvehicles.
The counters of nearly all bus operators in the city, including Hanif, Shyamoli, Sohag, SR and S Alam Paribahan were seen shuttered or partially shuttered all day.
“None of our buses have either entered or left the city since yesterday morning," said Hanif Paribahan General Manager Samad Mondol, citing security concerns as the reason behind the suspension of services.
Withnopre-announcementofthebus service stoppage, passengers in their hundreds were trappedforhoursatdifferentbus terminals.
A passenger, Nayon Moni, 25, was even found in tears at Sayedabad bus terminal. “My grandmother is on her deathbed in my village home at Comilla. But I have no way to reach her. I have been waiting here for three hours without any sight of a bus,” she said.
Passengers at Gabtoli bus terminal were found bargaining with CNG-run autorickshaws and taxicabs to reach Savar or Nobinagar, hoping to board a bus from there.
Though Bangladesh Road Transport
Corporation buses, plying long distance routes, remained off the roads, some of them ran services inside the city.
Most bus operators had their vehicles garaged, some from fear of police requisition while others did so under the directives of transport leaders.
Mohammad Javed, the driver of a bus plying on the Gulistan-Uttara route, said transport leaders had directed him not to work from Saturday to Monday and assured him that he would be paid some money as compensation.
Conditions were the same with launch services. Launch services between Dhaka and the country's southern districts remained suspended under the directives of the district administration, claimed some launch owners.
But leaders of the launch owners association claimed that they had stopped the services due to what they called a passenger crisis.
Allegations arose against a section of ruling party riverine transport workers for barring launches from anchoring at Sadarghat launch terminal and assaulting some launch staff who tried to anchor there.
Zakaria Sheikh, master of Sundarban-8, alleged that these workers became aggressive and even tried to attack them, terming them “Razakars” and BNP men, when they tried to anchor.
The arriving launches had to anchor in mid-river or at Postogola, Shyambazar and Swarighat.