The bus terminal was built on 3 acres of land in Jogidahar by the Dhaka-Sylhet regional highway at a cost of Tk 4 crore
Moulvibazar Municipality Bus Terminal, the only bus stand in town, half a km off Kusumbagh in the heart of the district, remains unused since it was opened in 2009, due to the reluctance of transport workers to use it.
The bus terminal was built on 3 acres of land in Jogidahar by the Dhaka-Sylhet regional highway at a cost of Tk 4 crore. Moulvibazar Municipality Mayor, Faizul Karim Mayun, opened the bus terminal in August, 2009.
However, it did not run for long due to the unwillingness of transport owners to use the bus stand.
Claiming that passengers do not want to go to the terminal, transport workers are now picking up and dropping off passengers on major thoroughfares, causing traffic jams and untold suffering to neighborhood residents.
District administration sat with transport owners and took an initiative to make sure buses use the terminal. Various inter-district buses from Dhaka, Sylhet, Habiganj, and Comilla, used the terminal for a few days.
However, they soon abandoned the terminal again and started illegally using various roads as bus stands. Since then, the bus terminal has remained unused.
The Srimangal road is now the main bus stand for the district town. Both sides of the road are now the 'Dhaka Bus Stand' in Moulvibazar, leading to traffic chaos in town.
Meanwhile, the bus terminal infrastructure is decaying since it has remained abandoned for so long.
On a field visit to the terminal, Dhaka Tribune found cracks in the terminal building walls with loose floor tiles and wide open windows in different rooms.
Counters allotted to different bus companies remain closed and unused.
Local trader Sadique Ahmed said no bus enters the terminal.
"Only buses on the Sylhet-Habiganj route stop at the main road in front of the terminal to pick up and drop off passengers. No other buses even approach the road."
Although many business entities were established around the bus terminal, traders are now counting their losses, he said.
Moulvibazar Road Transport Owners' Association President, Syed Masabbir Ali, said the bus terminal was established at a place where no long-route buses go.
"Buses and passengers alike, don't want to go there. It costs Tk 20-30 to get to town from the bus terminal," he said.
He also said the municipal authorities built the bus terminal in an unplanned way without consulting stakeholders.
Contacted, Municipality Mayor Fazlur Rahman said his predecessor constructed the bus terminal purposefully to free the district town of traffic jams and bring an end to haphazard vehicle parking.
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