The government has imposed a fresh restriction on trains, buses and launches asking their operators to carry 50 per cent of passengers for the second time amid the sudden rise in the COVID-19 infections.

Bangladesh Railway started selling 50 per cent tickets for all passenger trains from Tuesday a day after the Prime Minister’s Office issued an 18-point instruction aimed at containing the rising trend of coronavirus cases.

The road transport and bridges ministry asked the transport operators to carry half passengers against the capacity of the buses from today while allowing a 60 per cent increase in fare.

Officials of the shipping ministry also confirmed New Age that on Tuesday all launch operators were instructed to carry 50 per cent passengers of their carrying capacity.

All passengers, transport workers and staff at the railway, bus and launch terminals were also instructed to wear masks, use sanitisers  and maintain other health

The decisions were taken following the publication of a gazette notification on Monday signed by the prime minister’s principal secretary asking public transport operators to carry 50 per cent of their passenger capacity following the health guidelines.

Until further notice by the government, the instructions would remain in effect, confirmed officials from the ministries concerned.

Earlier on Monday, the government issued a set of 18 directives imposing restrictions on all types of gatherings initially for the next two weeks.

It also said that public transports will have to run at 50 per cent of its passenger capacity, besides following health rules and limiting inter-district transport movement in highly infected areas and, if needed, all transport movement would have to be halted.

The restrictions were imposed on the day when Bangladesh experienced the highest ever COVID-19 daily infections, 5,181, since the first reported positive cases on March 8, 2020.

The government suspended the services of public transports on railways and waterways on March 25, 2020 following the pandemic while the suspension was imposed on road transports on March 26.

The authorities resumed the operation of eight-pair intercity trains on May 31 and buses on June 1 of the year allowing them to run at their 50 per cent capacity while a 60 per cent increase in bus fare was imposed.

On September 1, the government allowed the bus operators to go back to normal services by withdrawing restrictions on the number of passengers and increased fare rates.

Following the gazette notification this year, the railways minister Nurul Islam Sujan on Monday night directed the Bangladesh Railway officials to follow the PMO directives.

BR additional director general of operation Sardar Shahadat Ali told New Age that they had started to sell 50 per cent tickets for all trains and railway staff and the passengers had been asked to follow health regulations.

‘Till Monday night, before the instructions were issued, advance tickets of April 4 were sold while from Tuesday we are not selling any advance tickets,’ he added.

BR director general Dhirendra Nath Mazumder said that the decisions would be followed till further notice.

Meanwhile, the road transport and bridges minister Obaidul Quader on Tuesday, at a video press briefing, said that the bus operators would carry 50 per cent passengers of the seating capacity of the buses from Wednesday by increasing fare by 60 per cent.

The fare rate would become normal when the situation would become normal, he said, and added that inside the buses all would have to wear masks and use hand sanitisers.

Bangladesh Road Transport Authority on Tuesday issued a press release in this regard also.  

The decision to increase bus fares came after a proposal was placed by the bus owners on Monday night at an urgent meeting of the fare fixation committee called by the Bangladesh Road Transport Authority at its headquarters.

Bangladesh Inland Water Transport Authority director Wakil Nawaz told New Age that following the PMO directives they informed the launch operators on Tuesday to carry 50 per cent passengers.

In 24 hours ending Tuesday morning, the country recorded 45 deaths with COVID-19, the highest for the two consecutive days after Monday compared with the past seven months, counting the death toll to 8,994. With 5,042 more people infected with COVID-19, the total number of infections reached to 605,937.