Quader hopes for comfortable travel for eid holidaymakers

Dhaka – Road Transport and Bridges Minister Obaidul Quader has said passengers will travel comfortably during the upcoming eid holidays, when hundreds of thousands of people move from major Bangladeshi cities to their ancestral homes for the religious celebration.

“There will be no traffic congestion during the eid journey if the drivers maintain discipline on the roads,” the minister said on Sunday at a discussion on special transport service by the state-run Bangladesh Road Transport Corporation in Dhaka.

He said passengers may find a little difficulty in Gazipur, north of the capital Dhaka. Rest of the roads across Bangladesh are well shaped, he added. The minister asked the authorities concerned to suspend piling work on Gazipur roads, which are under construction, until the eid vacation.

Advance sale of tickets for railway, road transport and waterways have began last week as people living in Dhaka will leave the city on the first week of June to celebrate the largest religious festival. The Eid-al-Fitr this year is expected to be celebrated on June 5, subject to sighting of the moon of Arabic month of Shawwal.

The minister, who returned from Singapore after two months of medical treatment, said he returned only to ensure a comfortable journey for the eid holidaymakers. “A revolutionary changes has began in Bangladesh’s road transport sector under Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina,” he added.

Quader said new buses were added to the BRTC fleet. Two hundred and seventy one buses will be added ahead of the eid. Four hundred eighty trucks among 500 have been arrived. The BRTC will operate a total of 1089 buses during the Eid, he said.

The minister criticized the BRTC management asking why the state-run buses require repairing so quickly, whey engines, air conditions are ruined so quickly, why they are not maintained properly.

“I don’t want to see BRTC as a bankrupt organization,” he said adding that 600 new buses had been added to its fleet. The problem will not the resolved with 6000 buses unless discipline restored in the state-run organization, Quader said.

He asked the authorities concerned not to charge extra fare, as allegations are there of taking extra money, during the eid vacation.

The state-run BRTC will begin its special eid services on road from May 27, said BRTC chairman Farid Ahmed Bhuiyan.

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