Transport owners have demanded that they be allowed to keep all buses transporting passengers at half the capacity instead of using half the buses they have in rotation.
They say the new rules for the public transportation system after the coronavirus lockdown are too complex to follow, reports bdnews24.com.
The rules will cause financial damage to the owners and sufferings of the workers, leaders of transport owners’ associations say.
The Cabinet Division in a notice on Sunday lifted almost all lockdown restrictions from Wednesday.
Public transport by road, rail and river will be allowed to reopen and can take passengers at full capacity.
However, operators in each city corporation and district will only be allowed to use half the number of vehicles in a given day and the rotation must be decided in discussions with the local government, law enforcers, relevant departments and agencies and owner and worker associations, the notice said.
Cabinet Secretary Khandker Anwarul Islam said the new rules will be mainly for long-haul passenger transport services.
Previously during the pandemic, public transports carried passengers at half the capacity to ensure physical distancing.
The decision to change the rules is not a wise one, said Ramesh Chandra Ghosh, president of Bangladesh Bus Truck Owners Association.
“It was easier to transport passengers adhering to the health rules earlier. I don’t think it will be possible to follow the new rules,” he said on Monday.
Companies with a large fleet of buses can follow the new rules but the owners who have only one bus will not be able to do so. “There are hundreds of thousands of such owners. How can we tell them to operate half their bus?”
Khandaker Enayet Ullah, secretary general of Bangladesh Road Transport Owners Association, said in a statement: “It will be difficult to find out how many vehicles an owner has and how many they are allowing to transport passengers. On the other hand, workers will have no job. Owners will also face huge losses.”
“Moreover,” he said, “allowing only half of the vehicles will create a transport crisis and the pressure of passenger will increase, which will lead to possibilities of an increase in infections.”
The association, however, has asked the owners to follow the new rules and keep the increased fare unchanged.