The construction work of the Rangpur central bus terminal, equipped with all modern facilities, has been fully completed at a cost of Tk50 crore.
The people of the region hope that the busiest bus terminal in the northern region will open new horizons through its inauguration.
Though the construction work has been completed fully, uncertainty centering on the inauguration of the terminal has arisen.
Earlier, it was announced that the terminal would be opened in September..
Officials of Rangpur City Corporation could not confirm anything about the inauguration date.
City dwellers have meanwhile demanded an early inauguration of the terminal.
The bus terminal, built nearly four decades ago in Rangpur city's RK Road area, was under knee-deep mud, foul-smelling water, and filled with cracks.
As a result, the terminal turned into a curse for passengers and transport owners and workers.
Buses plying on more than 100 routes, including intra-district, were forced to occupy the main road to pick up passengers leaving the main terminal.
Dhaka TribuneThe bus terminal, built nearly four decades ago in Rangpur city's RK Road area, was under knee-deep mud, foul-smelling water, and filled with cracks.
As a result, the terminal turned into a curse for passengers and transport owners and workers.
Buses plying on more than 100 routes, including intra-district, were forced to occupy the main road to pick up passengers leaving the main terminal.
The vehicles used to wait a long time on the main road to pick up passengers.
The new bus terminal with all modern facilities comes at a cost of Tk 51 crore.
The facilities include adequate parking spaces, escalators, ticket counters, ATM booths, women's prayer rooms, day-care centres, food, drug stores, public toilets, passenger service place, baggage areas, child recreation centres, shopping malls, traffic departments, control rooms, including VIP room, technical, administrative department and meeting rooms.
Apart from this, the terminal area has enough space for more than 500 buses to be parked.
According to sources in the engineering department of the corporation, the process to recruit an adequate number of manpower, including its own security forces, has been finalized.
Rangpur city corporation mayor Mostafizar Rahman Mostafa said the construction of the modern and aesthetics-oriented bus terminal was completed after the eviction of 74 illegal structures
“We hope that the passengers will get all the facilities and have a safe journey from here,” he said.
Dhaka TribuneAsked about the inauguration of the terminal, the city mayor said that all preparations had been made to inaugurate the terminal building in the first week of this month.
However, it was not possible due to various reasons.
He hoped that it would be inaugurated by the second week of next month.
Meanwhile, Executive Engineer Ali Azam of the city corporation said: “The construction has been completed. Now we are waiting for the opening. It is expected to be launched soon.”
In this regard, Amiruzzaman, the leader of the bus owners' association, said that the bus terminal needs to be opened as soon as possible.
Passengers arrive at the terminal to go to different destinations and sit for a long time. The ticket counters also could not be opened. As a result, the suffering of passengers is not being reduced.
Alamgir Hossain, a bus driver, said that now they need to wait on the Dhaka-Rangpur highway for the passengers with their buses which causes traffic jams on the highway every day.
As the terminal has all the facilities, the safety of passengers will increase while the sufferings of people will be reduced, he said.
In this regard, freedom fighter and prominent social worker Shahadat Hossain said that the opening of the terminal will reduce the long-term sufferings of people. But it is not being inaugurated because of some complications.
He urged the relevant authorities to open the terminal to reduce passengers' sufferings.
