Buses will be allowed to take passengers on all the seats from Saturday, a transport owners’ leader has said, although the government has ordered them to operate at half capacity to control a spike in deadly coronavirus cases.
As decided earlier, fares will remain unchanged and the health rules will be followed strictly, said Khandaker Enayet Ullah, secretary general of Bangladesh Road Transport Owners’ Association.
He told bdnews24.com on Thursday that Nur Mohammad Mazumder, chairman of Bangladesh Road Transport Authority, confirmed the news of the permission to him over phone.
But the BRTA chairman said he forwarded the owners’ proposal to the cabinet via the road transport and bridges ministry.
“The government is considering the matter positively, but no official order has been issued yet.”
With Covid-19 cases rising at an alarming rate amid the spread of the highly contagious omicron variant, the government on Monday imposed a set of restrictions, which came into force on Thursday, ordered buses and trains to run at half capacity to ensure physical distancing and other health rules.
The transport owners demanded a hike in bus fares to cover possible losses they would face for the cut in the number of passengers.
They met BRTA officials on Wednesday and agreed to keep the fares unchanged, but demanded that they be allowed to carry passengers on all the seats.
“It becomes impossible to transport passengers at half capacity during office hours in Dhaka. So, we’ve asked [BRTA] to allow us to take passengers on all seats. We’ve promised not to take standing passengers,” Rakesh Ghosh, assistant general secretary of the Bus-Truck Owners’ Association, said after Wednesday’s meeting.