A circular bus service has been introduced in the Hatirjheel project area to help people who go there for recreation or from one point to another on urgent business. Housing and Public Works Minister Engineer Mosharraf Hossain officially inaugurated the services as the chief guest in a ceremony on this occasion.
Primarily, four buses are available for travel. Each of them can accommodate 27 passengers and the buses stop at Rampura, Mahanagar project, Madhubag, Celebration Point near Tongi diversion road, Begunbari, Kunipara, Aarong, Police Plaza and Merul Badda. Each passenger has to pay Tk 15 to reach Karwanbazar from Rampura and Tk 30 for a ride around the project area.
The project was opened in 2013 to ease movement of the general people but there was no public transport on the roads inside Hatirjheel, although some unauthorised microbuses started plying for transporting people from one place to another inside the project area. They were stopped after media reported about the sufferings caused in adjacent areas. Although this Hatirjheel bus service has reduced the sufferings and costs of travel from Rampura to FDC, it has still some negative aspects. Passengers have to wait for a long time to get on board a bus because the number of buses are not enough compared to the demand. And the fare fixed in this route is more than twice the fare fixed by the government.
Mushfik Hasan
Dhaka
