BRTC eyes 20pc cost saving with workshop revival

A Bangladesh Road Transport Corporation (BRTC) workshop, which was shut down in 2012, has been brought back to life, and it has regained its capacity to overhaul heavy vehicles.

The Integrated Central Workshop (ICWS) in Gazipur can now fix engines, bodies, tyres, etc.

It has overhauled 113 heavy vehicles so far since its reopening in mid-2024, saving BRTC's maintenance and operating costs significantly.

Apart from overhauling vehicles, there are also plans to assemble new ones to increase the BRTC fleet size, officials said.

BRTC General Manager (Technical) Mohammad Jahangir Hossain said they have taken an initiative to assemble new buses by buying chassis, which will reduce the corporation's overall costs by at least 20 per cent.

ICWS General Manager Fatema Begum said since the workshop's revival, it has not only got back the capacity to overhaul the state-owned corporation's vehicles but can also support other operators.

The corporation's senior officials shared the ICWS's latest developments with a team of Reporters for Rail and Road (RRR) when the latter visited the workshop on Monday (February 17).

BRTC officials said the activities of the workshop, set up on 16.6 acres of land in 1981 with support from Japan, began slowing down after 2000. It was closed in 2012 as the state-run corporation emerged as a loss-making entity and centre of corruption.  

However, under the leadership of current Chairman Md Tazul Islam, who joined the BRTC in June 2021, the corporation moved to breathe new life

into the workshop as part of the 28 steps taken to make the state-run entity vibrant and profitable.

Fatema said 25 technicians, who were trained in overhauling all kinds of vehicles, successfully brought the workshop's age-old machinery to working order.

The BRTC received the machinery from the Japan International Cooperation Agency (JICA) back in 1981, she said.    

Many of the machines, including lathe machine, radial drill machine, milling machine, hydraulic press, washing stand, brake shoe grinder, brake drum lathe, tube heater, and some other exclusive ones, are not available at other private workshops, Fatema claimed.

"We have tried to overhaul the vehicles in a way so that they do not need such operations in the next five years," she also said.

Ashok Leyland buses and a truck were being overhauled during the RRR team's visit. Many of these buses either saw their economic life expired or damaged during agitations. 

The workshop can also retread eight to 12 tyres of short-haul buses daily. After studying a tyre's condition, six steps are followed to retread it.

The first major post-revival success of the workshop was building an open-top bus overnight to welcome the Bangladesh team after their victorious return from the 2022 SAFF Women's Championship. That particular bus and the likes of it are now used in Chattogram and Cox's Bazar for tourists.

The workshop was able to make Indian articulated buses operable by repairing their joint belts at a cost of Tk 40,000, which saved the BRTC Tk 3.4 million in import costs.

To refurbish the workshop, the BRTC spent Tk 4.5 million, Fatema said. She also said 416 tyres were retreaded since such work resumed in August last year.

"To buy a new tyre, the corporation needs at least Tk 35,000. But now we are retreading each one for Tk 8,000," the official added.

Speaking about building new buses, Jahangir said they have already invited tenders to buy chassis from the local market to save trial time.

"We believe the workshop will be able to build new buses in a month," he said, adding three months have been targeted for the trial.

Jahangir, an engineer with a military background, said the workshop would not only help BRTC expand its fleet but buses built there can also be sold to other operators, enabling the government to save money further.

The workshop is now also used to train technicians and interns from various engineering universities, including Bangladesh University of Engineering and Technology (BUET), Dhaka University of Engineering and Technology (DUET), Islamic University of Technology (IUT), and polytechnic institutes, he added.

smunima@yahoo.com