Pandemic takes long-haul buses off the roads. So what?

Long-haul bus services have been suspended due to the pandemic, but that has not dissuaded some people from travelling home for the Eid holidays. A tide of Eid returnees set out for various destinations from Dhaka’s Gabtali on Wednesday morning.

Most of them were riding trucks or motorcycles, but some used private cars. Despite the restrictions imposed by the authorities, government-owned vehicles, some with police stickers, were part of the mad traffic. Most vehicles were heavily laden with luggage for the journey home.

This reporter counted 35 motorcycles crossing Gabtali’s Mohona Pump in 30 seconds from 4:45 am. Children sat sandwiched between their parents on the two-wheelers, drifting off to sleep as the families set out.

By 5 am, a crowd of motorcycles had amassed around the SP Filling Station at Gabtali. Some were travelling quite a distance and many had three or more riders. Not only were most vehicles weighed down by the usual travel baggage, a few even had cages of pet pigeons. The frightened birds would begin their Eid holidays surrounded by shouting and screaming as they hung off the sides of bikes.

Three friends had stopped to discuss their trip after filling up at the station. They were headed to Joypurhat on their three 150cc motorcycles. One of them, Jishan Ahmed, said he had previously gone on a long tour on his bike for fun, but this was the first time he was using it to travel home. He couldn’t stand spending Eid in Dhaka without his mother and father, he said.

A family of five from Mirpur were standing at one corner of the filling station. Four of them were women who worked in garment factories. They were headed to the northern district of Bogura, but had not made prior arrangements for the trip. They were, however, determined to take whatever transport they could find.

“We want to go,” said Afzal Hossain, a member of the family, “but we aren’t finding anything to take us.”

“We don’t mind the hardship, but we can’t find any transport.”

Sometime later, the family haggled for space on a truck. The truck driver’s assistant leaned out the window and told them that the trip had a fixed price of Tk 1,000. “I even set up a tarp so the rain won’t bother anyone,” he said.

The family continued to haggle as the truck came to Aminbazar Bridge. They eventually settled for a fare of Tk 600 per person.

Many trucks were travelling very slowly as they argued with passengers over the price. The relaxed pace caused traffic congestion from Aminbazar to the Technical intersection. Some police personnel were sitting out in front of the Gabtali outpost, but they took no initiative to control the traffic.

A police sergeant named Mujahid came to the foot of Aminbazar Bridge at 6 am, which seemed to spur the trucks to pick up the pace. One of the driver’s assistants shouted: “Let’s go, there’s a sergeant just behind us.”

The trucks moved on to the Aminbazar Bridge area. Some Gabtali transport workers on the bridge called out destinations like Tangail, Sirajganj and Kushtia. They would receive a commission for the passengers they gathered. They were asking Tk 500 for trips to Tangail, Tk 600 for Sirajganj and Tk 1,000 for Kushtia. Many were trying to haggle with them, which slowed the footpath to a crawl.

The slow speed of the trucks infuriated the private cars and motorcycles that were trying to pass them. They kept steady pressure on their horns and it was hard to hear anything above the cacophony. The noise woke some of the younger children on the motorcycles, who woke up crying. The reporter spoke to the parents of a crying child on a motorbike, but could not catch their names before they rushed off. The mother put warm clothes on her child to ward off the early morning chill, but now it’s too hot and they’ve started crying.

Bus workers shouted above the noise, trying to coax passengers into their vehicles. The workers assured them that they would get transport to Dinajpur, Rangpur and Bogura if they reached Chandra. It seemed as if the buses were likely to leave anytime soon. None of the buses were following health restrictions. The buses were packed with passengers, beyond the permissible limit of 50 percent occupancy.

A group of seven construction workers were trying to reach Nilphamari.

“We’re not rich,” said Sohel Rana, one of the group. “We’ll take whatever we can get.”

But the high prices charged by the trucks meant they were having trouble finding transport. Finally, a cattle truck that had delivered its cargo to Dhaka allowed them to board.

Past Aminbazar, the road cleared up and it was possible to get to Jahangirnagar University without stopping. But there was some traffic near the university as vehicles carrying workers along the side roads in Ashulia got on the highway. There was more traffic at Nabinagar, where garment workers were setting off on their Eid journeys. Many trucks had stopped by the side of the road to pick up passengers, causing congestion.

“Look how much trouble the government has caused,” said a man named Lokman Hossain. “I’m having to pay twice my usual bus fare just to take a truck!”