The long-route transport owners of Benapole have announced an indefinite strike starting Saturday morning, leading to severe hardships for passengers on both sides of the border.
Bablur Rahman Babu, president of the Benapole Transport Association, said that a recent meeting between local and transport authorities addressed the ongoing traffic congestion in Benapole. As a result of the congestion, authorities ordered bus owners to relocate operations from the check post terminal to the Kagoj Pukur terminal, located 4 kilometres away from Benapole, which has caused significant inconvenience for travellers.
“In response to these changes, the Transport Owners Association has decided to halt all bus services between Dhaka and Benapole,” he added.
For the past 20 years, buses traveling from Dhaka and Chattogram have been dropping passengers directly at the port’s checkpost terminal, with empty buses then parking at the terminal. However, recent changes now require these buses to drop passengers at a more distant terminal, causing security concerns and delays.
One passenger, Mehedi Hasan, said: “After arriving from Dhaka, we were dropped off at the Municipal terminal, four kilometres from the border, at 3:00 am. After waiting at a tea shop for two hours, I had to take a bike to the border in the morning.” He added, “We want the buses to operate from the transport terminal at the check post.”
Passengers traveling to India have also expressed frustration, citing a new terminal built on the Indian side of the border at Petrapole to ease travel. In contrast, the terminal in Bangladesh at the border is being closed and passengers are being redirected to a terminal four kilometres away. This has caused significant hardship for travellers.
Benapole Municipal Council Administrator Kazi Nazir Hasan explained that this decision was made to alleviate traffic congestion at the port. However, long-distance buses will be permitted to drop passengers directly at the Benapole check post between midnight and 6:00am.