Long-route bus services from Rajshahi suspended

All long-haul bus services from Rajshahi remain suspended. The suspension was announced from Tuesday afternoon, April 21, following obstruction of bus movement through Natore. Passengers have been suffering as a result.

Sources said the situation arose due to a dispute between transport owners and workers of Rajshahi and Natore. Bus connectivity between Rajshahi and various districts of Dhaka, Khulna, Chattogram, Sylhet, Mymensingh and Rangpur divisions has been severed.

Transport workers said the dispute originated over a bus named 'Adnan Transport', owned by the general secretary of Natore Bus Owners' Association, which was operating on the Rangpur-Rajshahi route without following designated rules, creating tension in the transport sector of the two districts.

Rafiqul Islam Pakhi, acting general secretary of the Rajshahi Motor Workers' Union, said buses from Rajshahi were stopped in Natore in the morning. When asked to follow the rules, the response from Natore was that the buses would operate as they were, otherwise Rajshahi buses would not be allowed to run. Later, counters for Dhaka-bound buses were also shut in Natore, resulting in Dhaka-bound buses not being able to depart from Rajshahi either.

However, President of Natore District Bus Owners' Association, Prashant Kumar Poddar Lakshman, denied the allegation of stopping buses. He claimed that instead, seven to eight of their buses had been stopped in Rajshahi in the morning. He said that although the previous day's dispute had been resolved, the situation became complicated again because Rajshahi wanted to operate on its own terms. Neither side could say with certainty when the situation would be resolved.