Decision on bus fare cut Monday

Road Transport and Bridges Minister Obaidul Quader yesterday said a decision on cutting transport fares will be made in a meeting in the capital on Monday.

“The government has slashed the fuel prices. Accordingly, the transport fares will also be reduced,” he told journalists during a visit to the construction site of an underpass beneath Nabinagar-Chandra road in Gazipur.

A fare re-fixing committee composed of government officials, transport owners, workers and other stakeholders will discuss the issue in the meeting before making the decision.

The government on April 24 cut the prices of octane and petrol by Tk 10 a litre from Tk 99 and Tk 86. The prices of diesel and kerosene were reduced by Tk 3 per litre from Tk 68.

Transport operators have been making excuses for not cutting fares in line with the reduced fuel prices, said leaders of Bangladesh Passengers Welfare Association (BPWA).

However, the operators previously hiked the fares whenever the government had increased fuel prices.

Almost all the buses on inter-district routes are run on diesel, while most of the intra-city buses in metropolitan cities are run on CNG, according to transport operators.

The BPWA has demanded the government revise the transport fares in line with the fuel price-cut.

Slashing of transport fares is the right of passengers as the prices of fuel have come down, it argued.