Metro Day Off: Business picks up for buses on weekend

Usually, Fridays mean less passengers on Dhaka's roads, making business difficult for buses. However, the game has changed since metro trains started operating between Uttara and Motijheel all day.

Since January 20, when the metro trains started operating from 7:10 in the morning to 8:40 at night, buses departing from Mirpur have experienced a decline in weekday passengers, causing a significant reduction in their earnings. On the contrary, the two Fridays since January 20 have witnessed a notable increase in passenger turnout compared to weekdays.

This has encouraged many buses to increase their trips on Fridays.

Liakat Ali Khan, who supervises around 75 buses of Shikor Paribahan on the Pallabi-Jatrabari route via Farmgate and Gulistan, said the owner has set a daily collection target of at least Tk 9,000 for each bus. Some buses of the company managed to collect amounts ranging from Tk 10,000 to Tk 12,000 on the last two Fridays.

This starkly contrasts with weekdays when the collection per bus dwindled to as low as Tk 7,000 to Tk 8,000 in some instances.

Sheikh Sumon Hasan, overseeing 50 buses of Bihanga Paribahan on the Pallabi-Sadarghat route, said they have scaled down daily operations to 30 to 40 buses due to decreased passenger numbers. Yet, on Fridays, all 50 buses are deployed as there is an increase in passengers.

Sheikh Mohammad Jasim, who owns four buses of Mirpur Super Link, Murad Hossain, a driver of Bikalpa Paribahan that plies on Mirpur-12-Jatrabari, and at least a dozen of transport workers and owners these correspondent talked to echoed him.

Living in Shewrapara, Mirpur, Lavlu Talukder, a vegetable trader at Karwan Bazar, said despite paying double the fare compared to a bus, he chooses to travel on the metro rail to save time.

However, with the metro trains not operating on Fridays, he resorts to taking bus trips to reach his workplace.