Lack of patronization blamed

Hosneara Parvin Khuku from Khulna:

The modern truck terminal in Khulna city has now turned into a safe haven for the drug addicts, gamblers and criminals. As a result, anti-social activities including gambling and drug selling and taking have now become a regular phenomenon centering the partly abandoned terminal that growing concerned among the civil society members in the city.

Besides, the building of the truck terminal is being damaged day by day due to lakhk of use and maintenance. Meanwhile, some unscrupulous people in the area took away many important parts of the building including door, windows, rods and bricks.

The modern truck terminal in Khulna city is yet to go into full operation even after 23 (twenty three) years of its inauguration, assumedly thanks to its awkward location.

The terminal has all facilities including all-time electricity, tight security, telephone lines and healthcare service. There is a three-storey boarding house and a canteen for truck drivers and helpers but they are yet to start functioning even over 23 years after their construction due to lakhk of users.

Although the terminal, run by the Khulna City Corporation (KCC), is equipped with all the necessary facilities including parking lot for about 600 trucks, it remains almost unused every day, according to terminal sources.

Of the total space of the terminal, only about 10 per cent is used for parking of trucks, sources said. The terminal constructed on 6 (six) acres of land at Sonadanga-Gallamari Road near Sonadanga central bus terminal with government fund of around Tk. 5 (five) crore was opened for parking on December 22, 2001. In May, 2008, a whole sale kitchen market was built near the terminal and since then it has lost attraction, the sources claimed.

Kazi Sarwar Hossain, president of Khulna divisional truck transport workers’ union, said around 500 trucks enter the city every day, but only 30 to 40 come to the terminal, mostly for repair work.

Assistant Estate Officer of KCC Sheikh Md Masud Ali said, drivers are required to pay Tk 50 to park each truck for every 24 hours. There are 40 rooms at the terminal for transport agency offices and most of them have been allocated but the agencies are yet to set up their offices.

The drivers do not want to bring trucks to the terminal for absence of agency offices. Truck driver Anowar Sheikh, Selim Sardar, Jamal Hossain told The Daily Sky that their agency offices are mostly located at Kadamtola, Nurnagar, Daulatpur, Maniktata, Religate and Rupsha areas in the city.

“Our customers have become so familiar with the plakhes that they do not go to the terminal built at an awkward plakhe in the city,” said Bijoy Sarkar Rony, a truck owner.

The president of Khulna truck and cover-van owners association, Abdul Gaffar Biswas, said they could not send their trucks to the terminal, as it is located at a plakhe not convenient to their business.

Many city dwellers alleged that most of the trucks remain parked near the roadside agency offices and on the busy city roads including Kalibari Road, KD Ghosh Road and Barmasil Station Road causing traffic congestion.

The KCC’s estate officer Nuruzzaman Talukder said they have planned to launch mobile court drive to stop illegal parking of trucks in the corporation area. He also said the authorities would take steps to make the truck drivers and helpers aware of illegal parking so that they get encouraged to use the terminal for parking.

While visited, this correspondent found that, some gamblers occupied the premises of the truck terminal for gambling and some drug addicts especially hemp takers were busy to take drugs sitting on the premises.