Owners seek hike in Dhaka, Ctg bus fare

Private bus operators today conveyed a proposal to the road transport and bridges ministry to increase bus fare in Dhaka and Chittagong following the recent hike in gas and power tariff.

"As most of the buses in Dhaka and Chittagong run on CNG, we propose to increase fare of those buses only," said Khandaker Enyet Ullah, secretary general of Bangladesh Sarak Paribahan Malik Samity.

"We have proposed for revising the fare in accordance with the gas price hike," he told The Daily Star.

However, they did not speak about the fare of inter-district buses that run on diesel.

Meanwhile, Enyet Ullah, also general secretary of Dhaka Sarak Paribahan Malik Samity, today in a circular directed all bus owners in Dhaka to refrain from charging additional fare until the government comes up with any directive in this regard.

Talking to the correspondent, Road Division Secretary MAN Siddique said they have received the proposal. “

Now it will go through official procedure," he added.

According to the rule, a costing committee headed by chairman of Bangladesh Road Transport Authority (BRTA) is responsible to revise fare chart.

Although, representatives of the road transport and bridges ministry, transport owners, workers are included in the costing committee, it does not contain any representative of the passengers.

As per government-set existing fare chart, passengers have to pay Tk 1.50 (minibus) and Tk 1.60 (bus) for traveling per kilometer in Dhaka and Chittagong metropolitan area, while Tk 1.45 for per kilometer in the long route.

Meanwhile, Bangladesh Passengers' Welfare Association will stage a rally tomorrow protesting any probable move to increase fare.

For the last time, bus fare in two metropolitans was increased in 2011 and fare of long-route buses was hiked in 2013.

Currently, around 6,000 buses and minibuses ply in Dhaka and Chittagong cities, while around 70,000 buses run on different inter-district routes, according to transport operators.

CNG-users will have to pay additional price from Tk 30 to Tk 35 for per cubic metre, as per the new tariff structure announced by the Bangladesh Energy Regulatory Commission (BERC) on Thursday.

Besides, retail customers will have to spend on average 2.93 percent more on electricity and Tk 200 more on gas from this September 1.