Nagar Paribahan to launch buses on 3 more routes

Dhaka Nagar Paribahan service is going to be launched on three more routes soon to restore order in the public transport service in the capital, said Dhaka South Mayor Sheikh Fazle Noor Taposh, also the chairman of the bus route rationalisation committee.

The three new routes are Ghatarchar (Keraniganj) to Bhulta (Narayanganj) via Farmgate; Ghatarchar to Meghna Ghat (Kanchpur) via Bosila (Mohammadpur) and Science Lab; Ghatarchar to Narayanganj via Kakrail, said the mayor after the 21st meeting of the bus route rationalisation committee.

The consultants have already started working on the planning and infrastructure development required for these routes. They will submit recommendations to the committee in the next meeting, said Taposh.

The mayor said there are eight routes in this green cluster, of which one is operational. He hoped that all the routes would be operational by this year.

The mayor said, "It is not possible to evaluate an initiative immediately after it is taken. So, it is too early to evaluate the service. You must have noticed that we are working on three routes at a time instead of one, which means our activities are getting faster and more dynamic."

At the meeting, Dhaka North Mayor Md Atiqul Islam, who was virtually present at the meeting, and Dhaka South Mayor Taposh expressed frustration over the lack of strong and visible role of the Bangladesh Road Transport Authority (BRTA) and traffic police in the management of Dhaka city transport.

The mayors urged BRTA and the police to take more visible steps to make the Dhaka city transport service effective and efficient.

Dhaka South mayor said they were conducting drives to seize unauthorised buses in the city and they would go tougher if required.

Earlier, as per the decision of the 20th meeting of the Rationalisation Committee on 19 December, the activities of Dhaka Nagar Paribahan were inaugurated on 26 December from Mohammadpur.

Although Dhaka Nagar Paribahan started with 30 BRTC and 20 Trans Silver buses on Ghatarchar to the Kanchpur route, a total of 100 buses are expected to run on this route later.

Dhaka Nagar Paribahan buses will run from Ghatarchar to Bhulta as route-22 and from Ghatarchar to Meghna Ghat as route-23. Route-27 is from Ghatarchar to Narayanganj.

In 2015, Anisul Haque, late mayor of Dhaka North, took the initiative to run buses by companies based on routes. After his death on 30 November 2017, Saeed Khokon, the then Mayor of Dhaka South, took over the management of the Bus Route Rationalisation Committee and held 11 meetings.