High fares, jams trouble holidaymakers returning to capital

After celebrating Eid with near and dear ones at their ancestral homes across the country, holidaymakers continued to return to the capital in large numbers today, with many reporting exorbitant fares and traffic jams on their way back.

Although government offices reopened last Wednesday, most people returned to the capital from their homes on Friday and Saturday. As a result, the increased highway traffic has caused congestion in various places.

Secretary General of Jatri Kalyan Samity Mozammel Haque Chowdhury told TBS, “During Eid, people had to pay extra fares to travel from Dhaka. Similarly, they faced increased fares when returning to Dhaka.”

Soumya Sarkar returned to Dhaka today from Pirganj in Thakurgaon. While the journey usually takes 8-9 hours, it took him 18 hours. Additionally, he faced the hassle of increased fares. 

Due to the high volume of people travelling to Dhaka, he could not get a seat on a bus of reputed brands. Normally, the fare from Thakurgaon to Dhaka is Tk1,070-1,100, but since he could not get a ticket, he had to pay Tk1,700 for a seat on a local bus.

Atikur Rahman boarded a bus from Rajshahi at 10:00am on Friday. He told TBS, “I planned to reach Dhaka between 2:00pm and 2:30pm, but it was 7:30pm when I arrived. I couldn’t get a seat on the bus and had to pay a fare of Tk1,000 to sit on the engine cover.”

Speaking with passengers from the northern districts said there was a one and a half kilometres long traffic jam at the Dhaka-bound toll plaza on the western side of the Bangabandhu Bridge. The congestion continued for almost the entire day.

Fahad Samrat, a passenger from Barisal, said although the usual fare is Tk600-650, he had to pay Tk1,000.

Similarly, people from the northern districts, as well as from Jamalpur, Mymensingh, Noakhali, Feni, Khulna, and Satkhira had to pay more than the regular fare to travel to Dhaka.

Bangladesh Road Transport Authority Chairman Nur Mohammad Majumder told TBS, “Whenever we received complaints about overcharging, our teams imposed fines on transport owners. If there are specific complaints, we will take action accordingly.”

He, however, said there were no major traffic jams to report today.