Pilot route bus fare higher than usual

A proposal from the government-formed committee for fixing the fare for buses running under one company on Kanchpur Bridge-Motijheel-Ghatarchar (Mohammadpur) route in the capital under a pilot project set it at Tk 2.20 per kilometre. The rate is higher than the existing fare rate for the buses and minibuses running on Dhaka roads. Currently, the fare rate is Tk 1.70 per kilometre for 52-seat buses and Tk 1.60 for 36-seat buses in Dhaka and Chattogram metropolitan cities.

Bangladesh Road Transport Authority chairman Nur Mohammad Mazumder told New Age on Wednesday that the proposal would be sent to the road transport and bridges ministry for a final decision. ‘Following a review, the fare could be reduced or it may stay the same,’ he added.   Though the project was slated for an April 2020 launch, some of the Bus Route Rationalisation committee members said that the operating system for the pilot project is yet to be finalised.

Earlier at the 14th Bus Route Rationalisation committee meeting held on December 8, 2020, Dhaka South City Corporation mayor Sheikh Fazle Noor Taposh said that the franchise system would be introduced on a pilot basis on the Motijheel-Ghatarchar route from April 2021. On January 19 this year, at the 15th committee meeting, a decision was taken to extend the route from Motijheel to Kanchpur.

Against this backdrop, on Sunday, at a stakeholder meeting held at the BRTA headquarters, a proposal was placed to set the fare for the buses running on this route at Tk 2.20 per kilometre.

The buses will run under the Green cluster while no other buses from other routes will be allowed to run on the pilot route, said the committee members, who added that the buses will take passengers only at the designated bus stops only. The committee member and Dhaka Road Transport Owners Association general secretary Khandakar Enayet Ullah said that on the pilot route around 150 buses would run.

‘Decision is yet to be taken whether the buses will run under a joint venture company or under any contract,’ he added. Plan for rationalisation of bus routes was drawn up in 1997 and it was taken up by the late Dhaka North City Corporation mayor, Annisul Huq, after he was elected mayor in 2015. At the 13th BRF committee meeting held last year, a decision was taken to bring all Dhaka city buses under nine clusters and 22 companies on 42 routes.