A countrywide 48-hour transport strike, enforced by the Bangladesh Road Transport Workers Federation, continued for the second consecutive day on Monday.
In Dhaka, many people were seen walking or using rickshaws to reach their destinations, sometimes paying double or triple the usual fare. There are also complaints that ridesharing apps also hiked their fares significantly.
No buses were available other than the state-run Bangladesh Road Transport Commission (BRTC) bus service. Other than that, personal cars, CNG auto-rickshaws, app-based rides and rickshaws were the road traffic.
However, all public transport other than BRTC charged higher fares than usual.
The transport workers, on Saturday, declared they would abstain from work from 6am Sunday to 6am Tuesday to press home their eight-point demand.
Their demands include making all offences by road accident “bailable,” cancelling the provision of a Tk5 lakh fine for involvement in a road accident, keeping a representative of their federation in any probe body formed about a road accident, setting a minimum educational qualification of class-V to obtain a driver’s licence, and stopping police harassment on the roads.
Previously, on October 12, the workers’ association decided to launch a demonstration by halting work for two days starting October 28, to press home their eight-point demand - including amendments to the Road Transport Act - if their demands were not met by October 27.