Govt thinking of conditionally reducing public transport fare: Obaidul Quader

The minister for road transportation and bridges and general secretary of the Bangladesh Awami League, Obaidul Quader, said that the government is thinking of returning to the pre-determined fare of public transportation on the condition that the wearing of masks is made compulsory and no standing passengers are carried. He said a decision on this would be taken soon.

The minister said this while exchanging views with Cumilla Road Zone, BRTA and BRTC officials by videoconference from his residence this morning.

In the videoconference, the minister emphasised the need for quality road construction, and also said that the slow pace of land acquisition was delaying project implementation in many cases. He gave directives for increasing supervision by engineers during construction.

The minister said, "The lifeline of the country's economy is the Dhaka-Chattogram highway. With the construction of the second Kanchpur, Meghna and Gomti bridges, there is no more traffic jam on this highway." However, he stated that there is a lack of cleanliness.

The minister expressed dissatisfaction over the slow pace of upgrading the highway from Cumilla to Begumganj. He said the construction of Feni-Chaumuhani and Chaumuhani-Sonapur four lane projects would have to be completed soon after overcoming the complications of land acquisition.

The secretary of the Department of Road Transport and Highways, among others, participated in the videoconference, as did Nazrul Islam, Chief Engineer of the Department of Roads and Highways. Shahriar Hossain, Additional Chief Engineer of Cumilla Road Zone, Shawkat Ali along with executive engineers of various road departments of Comilla Zone and officials of BRTA and BRTC were also present.