bdnews24.com :
Thousands have been left stranded at Benapole because buses for Dhaka and Chittagong are reportedly fully booked for days.
Most of those stranded are Bangladeshis returning from India after the Eid holidays. Benapole check-post immigration police OC Iqbal Mahmud told bdnews24.com that there was three times the normal number of people to be cleared by immigration. “That explains the pressure on transport. Normally 2,500 people would go through immigration but now that has risen to 7,000,” Mahmud said.
On Sunday, most transport counters were reporting buses for Dhaka and Chittagong from Benapole as being fully booked for a few days. Many desperate commuters were forced to look for other options-hiring private cars or even microbuses to return to Dhaka. Sumitra Debi of Chittagong, waiting at the Eagle Travels counter, said she had returned from India that morning. “But I can’t go back home because I can’t get a ticket on any bus.” Aftab Uddin, Palash Mandal, Zafar Hossain and his wife Nadira Sultana, all back from India after Eid, are in similar straits. After failing to get a ticket on any bus leaving for the capital, Palash, a resident of Dhaka’s Demra, said, “I have travelled often to India through Benapole. But this has never happened to me before. There is not a single ticket at any counter.”
Thousands have been left stranded at Benapole because buses for Dhaka and Chittagong are reportedly fully booked for days.
Most of those stranded are Bangladeshis returning from India after the Eid holidays. Benapole check-post immigration police OC Iqbal Mahmud told bdnews24.com that there was three times the normal number of people to be cleared by immigration. “That explains the pressure on transport. Normally 2,500 people would go through immigration but now that has risen to 7,000,” Mahmud said.
On Sunday, most transport counters were reporting buses for Dhaka and Chittagong from Benapole as being fully booked for a few days. Many desperate commuters were forced to look for other options-hiring private cars or even microbuses to return to Dhaka. Sumitra Debi of Chittagong, waiting at the Eagle Travels counter, said she had returned from India that morning. “But I can’t go back home because I can’t get a ticket on any bus.” Aftab Uddin, Palash Mandal, Zafar Hossain and his wife Nadira Sultana, all back from India after Eid, are in similar straits. After failing to get a ticket on any bus leaving for the capital, Palash, a resident of Dhaka’s Demra, said, “I have travelled often to India through Benapole. But this has never happened to me before. There is not a single ticket at any counter.”
