As a result of Dhaka’s two city corporations’ indifference and lack of monitoring, commuters are unable to use the passenger sheds around the capital as most of them are either leased out, illegally occupied, or in shambles.
The daily travellers are forced to stand on the pavements and streets while waiting for transport, as both Dhaka North City Corporation (DNCC) and Dhaka South City Corporation (DSCC) have been unable to free the spaces for public use.
Most of these sheds are used for business purposes, housing hawkers, small traders, and ticket selling booths for local buses.
Many are taken over by drug addicts, sex workers, and even patrol police.
This means commuters have to brave sun and rain while waiting for transport, as in most places they are unable to find shelter.
In many areas around Dhaka, permanent shops have been built inside the passenger sheds. No steps have been taken by the two governing authorities of the capital to remove these establishments.
Visiting the city’s Mirpur, Mohammadpur, Farmgate, Shahbagh, New Market, Gulshan, Motijheel, Paltan, Malibagh, Mouchak, Moghbazar, Mohakhali, Sayedabad, Jatrabari and Sadarghat areas, this reporter found that only a handful of passenger sheds, mainly those privately built by banks and other companies, were free for public use.
All the DNCC and DSCC-owned sheds were, however, found occupied.
Sources at DNCC and DSCC said that most of these sheds were leased out to people and companies for 25 years by the military government headed by HM Ershad in 1989-90. Some of these lease contracts had already expired, while the rest would end later this year, they said.
Two sides of the coin
Shafiq Ahmed, resident of Tejturipara area, said the passenger sheds were now taken over by BRTC ticket counters, newspaper stands and fast food shops.
“The travellers hardly get space to stand inside the sheds. I am surprised by the city corporations’ role in this, or lack thereof,” he said.
Tania Islam, a private bank official, travels by bus between Motijheel and Mohammadpur every day and has to wait for bus on the pavement.
“There is no room under the shed. The space is taken up by vendors,” she said.
When asked about the matter, Habibur Rahman, a newspaper seller occupying the passenger shed near Ananda Cinema Hall in Farmgate, said: “The space was leased out to Newspaper Hawkers’ Association by the former Dhaka Municipal Corporation for 99 years.”
Shamsul, a fast-food joint owner occupying the passenger shed in front of Tejgaon College, echoed Habib’s defence, saying the city corporation authority had leased the space out to him.
What the officials say
Requesting anonymity, a DSCC official admitted that the departments in charge of the passenger sheds’ maintenance had failed to carry out their responsibilities.
“We do not have any plan to build more sheds in the city at the moment,” he said, adding that the private companies who had taken up repairing the old sheds and building new ones were doing so in an unplanned way and to suit their own business interests.
Md Fasi Ullah, chief estate officer at DNCC, told the Dhaka Tribune that the city authority had not taken appropriate measure to free the passenger sheds due to legal complications.
“Most of the sheds were leased out in 1989-90 by the then government. We could not do anything because of legal matters,” he said.
He also claimed that they would repair and reconstruct the existing sheds once all the leases expired in August-September this year.
Khalid Ahmed, chief estate officer in DSCC, agreed. “The leases will expire later this year. We will take care of the matter after then,” he said.
