Long-distance buses from Benapole closed for two days
A long-distance transport strike has been going on in Benapole for two days. As buses were closed for the second day yesterday, Sunday, passport-holding passengers are suffering.
It is learned that the transport owners and labor organizations called for an indefinite strike from Saturday after the Benapole Municipality moved the stand of day and night transport 2 kilometers away from the international check post. The government built a huge transport terminal at the Benapole check post at a cost of 30 crore taka for the convenience of passport-holding passengers. As a result, passengers could travel to India by walking, completing immigration and customs formalities in the fastest time.
Suddenly, passport-holding passengers, including transport owners and labor organizations, were angry with this decision of the municipality authorities. Earlier, a meeting was held last week with the Jessore Deputy Commissioner and local people and transport officials to resolve the traffic jam in Benapole. According to the decision of the meeting, even though the port has its own transport terminal, India-bound passengers are being dropped off at the municipality terminal, 2 km away from the checkpost, at 3 am, which is very costly for passport passengers. As a result, the transport terminal built at a cost of 30 crore taka is lying unused. This has stopped the revenue income of crores of taka from the port’s transport terminal.
Passport passengers are unable to accept such a harassing decision. For 20 years, night and day transports leaving from different regions including Dhaka, Chittagong have been dropping passengers directly at the checkpost terminal. Later, the empty transports were kept at the port terminal. This not only generated revenue for the port, but also allowed passengers to enter immigration on foot.
A passport passenger in Amal Sen Ram said that a passenger transport terminal has been built along with immigration for the convenience of passengers at the neighboring Indian checkpost Petrapole. The terminal operating on the border with Bangladesh is being closed and passengers are being sent to a terminal located 2 km away. This has increased the suffering.
Passport passenger Imran Hossain said, the transport coming from Dhaka was stopped at the municipal terminal, 2 kilometers away from the border. There, the passengers were dropped off from the bus at 3 am. Later, after sitting at a tea shop for 2 hours, I came to the border in the morning with an easy bike. Bangladesh takes money from a passport-holding passenger to use the land port. So what service did the port provide us? We want the buses to operate from the land port terminal located at the check post.
In this regard, the president of the Transport Association, Bablur Rahman Babu, said, a few days ago, a meeting was held with the Jessore Deputy Commissioner and us and the local civil society. In it, all the buses were taken from the check post terminal to the Kagojpukur terminal, and the administration instructed the vehicles to leave from there.
Benapole Municipality Administrator Kazi Nazib Hasan said, all long-distance transport with passengers will be able to go to the Benapole check post from 12 am to 6 am. Buses will depart from the municipality terminal during the day. This decision has been taken to ease traffic congestion at the port.
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