Following the recent announcement of a 10-day national general holiday people working in offices, NGOs, private corporate houses have become desperate to leave the capital Dhaka, other metropolitan cities and district towns. Large numbers of people started moving in all direction especially leaving the capital since Monday afternoon when the government declared a nationwide 10-day holiday shutting down government and private offices excepting essential and healthcare services from March 26 over the deeply concerning the COVID-19 situation.
All the government and private offices will remain closed from March 26 to April 4 to prevent the spread of coronavirus. In the capital Dhaka, people from different parts of the city thronged to the railway stations and inter-district bus and launch terminals to reach their respective destinations.
However, most of the passengers are facing trouble as Bangladesh Railway has suspended operation of 257 local, mail and commuter trains from Tuesday morning to prevent the spread of coronavirus. Authorities of public and private long-distance road transports also undertook measures to drastically limit inter-district bus services while all vessels leaving mostly for the southern districts from the capital have also been suspended making it more difficult for the passengers.
Rangpur bound Esrail Hossain at Kallyanpur bus stand said, “I think the overall situation of corona outbreak in the capital would be worse in the coming days. It’s better to be in the village passing this long holiday,” he added.
Another Dinajpur bound passenger,Farhatul Islam who is leaving with his wife and son said, “It’s a long holiday. The first corona infected person has died in Mirpur Toalrbagh. Then for the safety of my family, we are going back home, realizing Dhaka would not be a safe place to live.”
When a group of waiting passengers was why they decided to leave the capital, most of them replied saying that they were very worried about the viral infection and thought rural are may be a safer option.
Officials of a prominent privately-run long-distance bus services which mostly operates bus on North Bengal routes, claimed that they are following strict hygiene practices to bring confidence of passengers. it’s counter manager Abdur Rahim said, “We wash our buses after each trip. You can checkinside thebuses; they are free of germs ensured before leaving for the destination.We also ask our passengers to use hand sanitizers and sprayed liquid germ-killing Clorox.”
In the meantime, Road Transport and Bridges Minister ObaidulQuader suspended public transport services from March 26 to April 4 through a video message to the nation. Waterway and all the domestic flights also have been suspended to preventpeople from transmitting the novel coronavirus.
