Remove unfit buses, overhaul the sector
Bangladesh Jatri Kalyan Samity yesterday demanded the removal of unfit and rundown buses from Dhaka and Chattogram.
It called for a public transport system through a public-private partnership under a route rationalisation system, instead of being controlled by transport owner associations.
For all latest news, follow The Daily Star's Google News channel. At a press conference at Dhaka Reporters Unity, the organisation also called for the introduction of 5,000 high-quality buses to address the growing crisis in urban public transport.
Md Mozammel Haque Chowdhury, the association's secretary general, alleged that passenger sufferings have worsened due to a transport crisis caused by the overnight repainting of old, unfit buses into pink-coloured vehicles instead of replacing them with new ones.
On December 19 last year, Road Transport and Bridges Adviser Muhammad Fauzul Kabir Khan instructed the removal of buses older than 20 years from Dhaka by May.
He also announced that from February 25, all existing routes in Dhaka would be abolished and replaced with nine rationalised routes, each served by modern buses with distinct colours.
However, Mozammel claimed that instead of introducing new, improved buses, the directive has been exploited to repaint 20-to-40-year-old unfit vehicles and keep them in operation.
These buses have already been integrated into the e-ticketing system, where fares are collected at counters. Drivers and assistants are paid per trip, and weekly or biweekly revenue is submitted to transport owner associations, he said.
He also pointed out that the Dhaka Sarak Paribahan Malik Samity announced on February 4 that 21 transport companies would operate under a counter-based system from February 6, despite the fact that the Bangladesh Road Transport Authority (BRTA) did not approve the colour changes of 2,610 buses.
Furthermore, neither BRTA nor traffic authorities have an official record of these repainted buses.
He also criticised the poor condition of these repainted buses, describing them as unfit, unhygienic, and unsafe.