Bangladesh Road Transport Authority (BRTA) has proposed increasing bus fare by 10 percent; however, private bus owners in Dhaka and Chittagong cities demanded the fare increase to be double that.

The two parties failed to come to an agreement regarding the fare hike at a meeting at BRTA office yesterday.

A committee headed by the BRTA chairman is likely to sit again within two to three days for further discussion, said BRTA officials and transport operators.

Currently, passengers pay Tk 1.5 (minibus) and Tk 1.6 (bus) for every kilometre they travel in the two cities. If a passenger travels to Pallabi from Sadarghat in a bus, he or she has to pay Tk 28. With a 20 percent increase, the fare would be Tk 34, while a 10 percent increase would increase the fare to Tk 31. 

The move to increase bus fares in Dhaka and Chittagong cities came after the government on September 1 increased CNG price from Tk 30 to Tk 35 per cubic metre.

Talking to The Daily Star, over a dozen passengers expressed their frustration over the decision to increase bus fares. "My rent has increased and so has the price of commodities. And now transport fares will increase, but my income has been the same over the years," said Shafiqur Rahman, an employee of a private company, who travels from Sanir Akhra to Banani daily.   

Shakila Sarmin, who travels from Asad Gate to Uttara daily, alleged that bus operators never follow the government-set fare rate; rather they always charge higher.

Khandaker Enayet Ullah, secretary general of Bangladesh Sarak Paribahan Malik Samity, said, "Under the present socio-economic circumstances, a fare hike is very crucial for transport operators. Without an increase, bus owners will incur huge loss."

As per government rules, a costing committee headed by BRTA's chairman formulates a draft proposal for transport fare hikes after analysing around a dozen issues and criteria related to vehicle procurement, maintenance and others. The committee includes representatives of officials of the road transport and bridges ministry, transport owners and workers. But no representative of passengers is kept in the committee. After drafting a proposal, the committee sends it to the ministry for final approval.

Bus fares in the two cities were last increased in 2011.