No long-route buses after 9pm – Transport companies will refrain from plying their bus rotes on various longer routes across the country after 9pm daily to avoid untoward incidents like arson and fire bomb attacks.
By Shamsul Hoque Basunia, in Dhaka
The companies would return to the previous schedule of the buses if adequate security measures are beefed up at different risky points on the highways across the country, the transport owners agreed. They reached this decision at a meeting with the home minister at his secretariat office in Dhaka February 9.
“We have decided not to ply buses on long routes after 9pm on security grounds,” said Khandaker Enyetullah, secretary general of Bangladesh Road Transport Owners Association.
“Buses are being torched in clandestine attacks at different points on the highways. It is impossible to ensure deployment of police forces throughout the highways. So we will not run our buses after 9pm for some days,” he added.
He also urged all transport owners across the country to make sure to reach their destinations before 9pm every day.
“We hope that the prevailing situation would calm down within two or four days and when all kinds of vehicles will run on the streets again following the usual schedules,” he ended.
