Photo: Messenger
The government has eased curfew restrictions imposed to quell widespread violence sparked by the quota reform movement. Following a three-day general holiday declared in response to nationwide clashes that erupted over the students' movement, public and private offices resumed operations on Wednesday from 11 am to 3 pm. With the curfew relaxed to 10 am to 5 pm, private vehicle traffic increased on the roads.
The deadlock that had paralyzed the country, including the capital Dhaka, for over a week due to the students’ quota reform movement, ended on Wednesday. The relaxation of the curfew to seven hours and the partial reopening of government offices and courts offered some respite to the public.
Since Wednesday morning, heavy traffic has been seen on various roads of the capital, including Mirpur, Kalyanpur, Technical, Gabtali, Agargaon, Tejgaon, Motijheel, Banani, Mohakhali, and Sayedabad. Due to traffic congestion and lack of public transport, the streets of Dhaka were at a standstill.
Passengers on the road informed that the metro rail was closed on one side, and the elevated expressway was closed on the other. The establishment of check posts at various places caused heavy traffic jams due to the lack of public transport. Rickshaws, battery-operated auto-rickshaws, and CNGs were also seen on the main roads, along with private cars. The non-availability of public transport and traffic jams caused trouble for commuters heading to the office in the morning.
Passengers were seen waiting for the bus at Agargaon junction in the capital. Nasir Mia, one of them, said, "I left Shawrapara in a rickshaw. Seeing the traffic jam on the whole road, I walked to Agargaon. I will go to Motijheel, but there is no public transport on the road."
A passenger named Rabiul Haque, who was waiting for the bus at Farmgate, said, "I will go to Banglamator, but I am not getting anything. There are hundreds of people standing here, but not enough vehicles. We're stuck in traffic."
Another passenger named Afsana Nila said that a relative was admitted to Dhaka Medical Hospital. "I want to go there. Although there is no public transport on the road, there is traffic congestion."
Tarek Sekander, Assistant Commissioner of Sher-E-Bangla Nagar Zone (Traffic, Tejgaon Division), said that the metro rail is closed due to vandalism. On the other hand, the road in front of Gonobhaban is closed for security reasons. For this reason, all vehicles from Kalyanpur, Mirpur, Gabtali, and Shyamoli were taking the Agargaon route. There was a lot of pressure on the road until 12:30 pm.
Hundreds of people were seen standing at the Kalyanpur bus stand around 10:30 am, but the number of buses was low. CNG-powered autorickshaws were not available. Not only Kalyanpur, but also the surrounding Shyamoli and Shishu Mela areas were in the same situation.
A heavy traffic jam was also seen in the Mohammadpur bus stand area around 9:30 in the morning. There was also a traffic jam in the surrounding alleys. People going to work suffered due to the lack of public transport. A passenger named Mustafa Kamal said that he took a rickshaw from the Town Hall area of Mohammadpur around 9:30 am and left for Karwan Bazar. Upon reaching Asad Gate, he left the rickshaw, walked a little, and got into another rickshaw. However, even by 12:15 pm, he had not reached his workplace at Karwan Bazar.
Another passenger named Rashed said it took him an hour and a half to go to Karwan Bazar from Shyamoli by rickshaw. At other times, it takes 40 minutes to travel this route. Saikat left Asad Gate at 10:30 am to go to Karwan Bazar, his workplace. He is an officer at a private company. He saw that everything was at a standstill in the traffic jam, so he began to walk and reached the office after walking for a quarter of an hour.
Regarding the traffic situation, Soumi Imtiaz, assistant commissioner of the Motijheel zone, said that the sudden opening of the office has increased traffic pressure on the roads. She said the office was open from 10 am to 3 pm. After that, the curfew will be activated again, reducing the pressure on the road.
Meanwhile, all the factories reopened across the country as the government relaxed the curfew for seven hours after a four-day pause. Garment and textile factories in Chattogram started to reopen yesterday under special arrangements. All factories in the garment manufacturing hubs fully reopened on Wednesday. As the day got off to a busy start, traffic congestion clogged Dhaka streets, even though buses were running with a go-slow strategy.
Almost all apparel factories, textile mills, and accessories industries have resumed their production at full capacity after five days of closure due to student protests demanding quota system reform in jobs, according to the Bangladesh Garment Manufacturers and Exporters Association (BGMEA) office bearers.
They also mentioned that they resumed full-capacity production after getting a green signal from Home Minister Asaduzzaman Khan Kamal on Tuesday night.
Muhammad Hatem, Executive President of the Bangladesh Knitwear Manufacturers and Exporters Association (BKMEA), told The Daily Messenger, “Every factory has resumed production at 8 am like their usual routine. If the situation normalizes, we might recover the losses incurred during the movement.”
“The student protest does not have any relation to our workers, which is why the government allowed us to resume production,” he added.
Sirajul Islam Azad, chief human resources officer (HR, Admin and Compliance, and Supply Chain Management) at Bitopi Group, informed that they have four factories, including three EPZ factories in Cumilla, Adamjee, and Dhaka, and employee presence is normal, like a regular day.
He further said on average 2.5 percent of workers are absent out of around 20,000 employees. He also mentioned that they have huge work pressure, but due to the curfew, they will run production for only a few hours. After some days, they will try to do some overtime.
Mezbah Uddin, senior manager, HR of Ananta Group, said the group has dyeing, printing, and embroidery units, and all employees are present like a regular day.
Workers started working at 8 am as they stay nearby the factory, and the senior management joined work as the curfew break began at 10 am, he added.
Meanwhile, bus services from Dhaka's Sayedabad Bus Terminal to other parts of the country resumed with a thin presence of passengers this morning.
Sankar Das, a staff member of Shyamoli Paribahan bus counter at the terminal, told The Daily Messenger around 12:30 pm, at least eight to nine buses had left the capital on different long-distance routes. “The pressure of passengers is low. However, we are not operating all of our buses on the routes,” he said.
Messenger/Disha
