Rajshahi Road Transport Owners' Association Monday launched a "special" service as battery-run auto-rickshaw drivers' walkout has brought misery to the city roads. Commoners – especially students and office-goers – faced travel delays and disruption as hundreds of battery-run auto-rickshaw drivers, who play a vital role in keeping the city moving, walked off their job Sunday morning, demanding fare increases to "offset soaring inflation." During the ongoing walkout, the passengers alleged that they faced hours-long waits on the road for vehicles and a few three-wheelers that were still running charged extra fares, leading to altercations between them and drivers throughout the city. "Amid travel delays and disruption, the special city bus service was introduced. Initially, 30 buses started giving services to the commoners Monday afternoon," Shafkat Monjur, president of the road transport owners' association, said.  Read: Nagar Paribahan service resumes in Khulna city after 2 years "We launched the service on our own. However, we are yet to fix the fares and are not sure about for how long the special service will continue," he added.    "We will discuss these issues with Rajshahi City Corporation. For the time being, our priority is to ease the sufferings of the people."

After a two-year Covid-induced hiatus, the popular cross-border bus service between Bangladesh and India resumed on the Kolkata-Khulna-Dhaka route on Monday. A bus of Shyamoli Paribahan with 28 passengers on board began its journey from Kolkata's Karunamay terminal around 9am on Monday and reached the New Market area of Khulna around 8pm under police protection, said Abani Kumar Ghosh, the head of Shyamoli Paribahan. Ghosh said that he's very happy to come to Bangladesh by road after a long time. "We suspended the cross-border bus service on March 12, 2020, following the outbreak of Covid-19." Read: Extremely busy first day ends in tailbacks, showcases potential "As the prices of all daily essentials have gone up, we will ensure that the people of Khulna can go to Kolkata at minimum fare," he added. Now on, three buses will run from Kolkata to Bangladesh via Benapole daily. Irani Mitra, a fashion designer from Kolkata, said, "I have come here to participate in an award ceremony in Dhaka. It feels really great to be the first bus passenger." "At the same time, I will make the first journey through Padma Bridge. This is also an award to me," Irani said. "I am happy with the services of the transport firm," she added.  

Commuters travelling by the red-and-green buses of Dhaka Nagar Paribahan (DNP) since the pilot launching of the public transport company late last year has so far been happy with its disciplined services and reasonable fare. For the passengers there is neither any hassle in buying the tickets nor any arguments about fare. Passengers get on and off at designated stations. Inside, there are enough seats to sit and they are comparatively clean. Drivers are civil and helpers are helpful. In spite of the delivery of the services it has promised the pilot service is being shunned by many regular commuters. The common complaint is that the buses are too slow to reach the stops resulting in long frustrating wait for the passengers. This drives many passengers to take the otherwise rough-driving higher fare-charging buses simply because they can reach them to their destination faster.

An association of transport owners in Chattogram have decided to operate buses in the city from Sunday 6 am, defying the ongoing nationwide strike against fuel price hike. “We have decided to operate the bus services that are under association from Sunday," said Belayat Hossain, President of Chattogram Metropolitan Bus Owners’ Association. in a note to journalists Saturday evening. The peaceful strike was for decreasing fuel price or else increasing the transportation fares but some unidentified people are picketing on roads disguised as transport workers, he said. Also read: Transport strike disrupting goods delivery from Ctg port “With the assistance of some unwanted people they are obstructing movement of CNG, autorickshaw, personal vehicles and industrial vehicles to upset common people. This issue made us take up the decision of continuing the bus services," said the president. Earlier around 9am some transportation workers blocked the Tigerpass intersection in the city and obstructed autorickshaws and other vehicles from moving. Some victims complained they restricted public transportations and personal vehicles from moving. Around 11am police removed the workers from the road. Meanwhile, the nationwide transport strike has seriously disrupted the movement of inbound and outbound goods-laden vehicles of Chattogram Port, bringing goods delivery almost to a halt. Around 4,000 vehicles used to ply from off-docks 19 but now the number has come down to half, while that of vehicles carrying export goods from different factories to the port have also declined sharply, said Ruhul Amin Sikder, Secretary General of Bangladesh Inland Container Depots Association (BICDA). Also read: Day 2 of bus strike: Commuters' pain is auto drivers' gain A highly-placed source at Chattogram Container Terminal and New Mooring Terminal, said the delivery of imported goods from the port has declined to 5% in these two days. On Wednesday (Nov 3), the government raised the prices of diesel and kerosene to Tk 80 from Tk 65 at the retail level. The next day, convenor of Bangladesh Truck-Covered Van, Tank Lorry and Prime Movers Owners and Workers Coordination Council Md Rustom Ali announced their decision to go on indefinite strike, following an emergency meeting.

The much-awaited trial run of a new city bus service in a small corridor of Dhaka will begin on December 1, under an ambitious project that aims to eventually put in place an effective public transport system in and around the capital. In fact, Dhaka and its outskirts today account for more private vehicles than any other city in Bangladesh. The reason behind this unbridled rise in the number of private vehicles can be attributed to the lack of a robust public transport system. Also, most of the buses that ply in Dhaka are "unfit". All that's going to change eventually, if the two city corporation's bus route rationalisation programme under the name of 'Dhaka Nagar Paribahan' tastes success in the trial run on a 21km route -- from Ghatarchar in Keraniganj to Kanchpur. Read: 3 Dhaka-bound buses stopped in Chapainawabganj, passengers robbed Dhaka South City Corporation's (DSCC) Mayor Sheikh Fazle Noor Taposh announced the date of the trial run at a media briefing on Tuesday, following the 18th meeting of the Bus Route Rationalisation Committee (BRRC) at Nagar Bhaban. “We held our first meeting on October 6 last year after assuming charge. We have been working relentlessly for the last one year in order to bring discipline on the city roads. The implementation of the city bus route rationalisation was very tough," he said. "Today, I am able to give you a date. The buses will run between the pilot route of Ghatarchar to Kanchpur under the new process and it will be able to give standard services to people," the Mayor added.

Transport workers in Chandpur went on a wildcat strike on Monday morning halting bus services in the district in protest of a driver's death allegedly due to negligence. The sudden stoppage caused huge sufferings to the commuters and long-distance travellers. As many as 400 bus services on Dhaka, Cumilla, Lakshmipur, Sylhet, and Chattogram routes from the district remained suspended while workers vandalized a part of the municipal bus terminal during a demonstration. Also read: Protest in Chattogram over construction of elevated expressway Later police took control of the situation but the buses stood still at the terminal till writing this report, said police sources. Due to the sudden suspension, the office and daily commuters had to pay double fare to reach their destinations by auto rickshaws or some other means. Officer-in-Charge of Sadar model police station Md Abdur Rashid said, on Sunday a bus named Padma lost control and hit a roadside tree in Chandpur sadar leaving a child dead and 10 injured including the bus driver Mizan Molla, 30. Severely injured Mizan was referred to Dhaka Medical College Hospital after giving primary treatment in district hospital but he succumbed to his injuries on Sunday night. Also read: Student protest causes traffic disruption in Barishal Angered by Mizan’s death the transport workers in Chandpur started demonstrating Monday claiming that the driver died due to lack of treatment. They also demanded solution for infrastructure problems in the terminal and resignation of transport leaders. Police held a meeting with the bus owners and workers association to solve the issue. Municipal mayor will also hold a meeting with the transport workers’ representatives, said leaders of the workers Kamal Patwary and Faruque Dewan.

Bus services on all the routes in Rajshahi district remained suspended for the second consecutive day on Tuesday, causing immense sufferings to the commuters.

A circular bus service for the dwellers of the old part of Dhaka will be launched on test basis in the last week of December, said Dhaka South City Corporation (DSCC) Mayor Sayeed Khokon on Monday.