How easy is it to arrive in Dhaka during a hartal?
Replies: 12 - Last Post: Mar 17, 2013 11:26 PM Last Post By: anpijola
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Special service to Pick & Drop to airport would be possible with ambulance during hartal days. Contact Nijhoom Tours5
Usually a hartal last 12 hours from 6am till 6pm. But Mar 3-5 hartal is continuous; that means those who called hartal will try to enforce it 24-hours a day. CNG or taxi take big risk to move around.It is relatively safer to travel from Airport to Banani/Gulshan/Baridhara using the main airport road. If you stay around that area, the airport CNG/taxi may be more willing to go there.
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@JepAmbulance is the only safe transport during hartals, and it is used heavily in Bangladesh for transporting passengers. No one burns ambulances, while they do burn CNGs. Better to be careful.
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These days, even ambulance is not a guarantee. The week before, pickets stopped an ambulance in Cox's Bazar and sadly, the sick perished due to delay.11
It should be OK, but there's a risk. You shouldn't really travel on hartal days at all. But that road isn't usually violent, and there should be hardly any traffic around so you probably won't spend very long on it anyway. You could be in Banani in 20 mins or so. I suggest getting out the airport and throwing some money at a taxi guy to take you. I usually pay 400 taka from the airport to banani, start from there (they won't accept at first) and see how much they want for danger money :)12
Today (Mar 18) and tomorrow are a continuous 48 hours strike. Embassy has reported that this morning there are clashes and vandalizing at Baridhara (near US embassy) and Banani. Yesterday it happened at Gulshan too. These so called 'safe' dilpomatic zones are no longer free from clashes. If you are around, move with care.
