Further disarray likely as 21 new city routes approved

Dhaka's chaotic bus system is likely to worsen as a newly-formed committee, comprising mostly police officials and transport owners, has approved 21 fresh routes for both new and old companies to operate their fleet.

The move would severely damage the scope for implementing the bus route franchise (BRF) system, which aimed at restoring order in the city's public transport by implementing the "one route, one company" concept after rationalising 382 routes, sources said.

They said the 29-member committee, formed with the Dhaka Metropolitan Police (DMP) commissioner as the chairman and comprising leaders of bus and truck owners and workers, approved the routes at a meeting recently.

"The committee named Goods and Passenger Transport Committee is nothing but a new form of the regional transport committee (RTC)," said one of them.

He said the RTC was responsible for introducing unscientific routes and buses as those were approved without any study or data on transport demands, trip generation, etc.

The Financial Express found that the new approved routes start from different points of Savar and end at various areas of Gazipur.

They cover areas like Gabtoli, Mirpur 1, Mirpur 10, ECB Chattar, Kuril, Abdullahpur, Shyamoli, Mohammadpur, and Azimpur.

Some routes will also head towards Gulistan and Jatrabari to connect with different areas of Narayanganj.

One is also connected to Pink City through the 300 Feet highway, where no bus service has been allowed so far, except for the Bangladesh Road Transport Corporation (BRTC) articulated buses.

Bringing back discipline in the city bus service has long been demanded. But it did not happen due to politicisation and nexus among police, leaders of bus and truck owners' associations, and workers' unions.

Despite efforts made since 1990, bus services could not be improved. Even air-conditioned bus services named Nirapad and BRTC Volvo did not sustain.

All the previous master plans, including DITS in 1994, DUTP in 1998, STP in 2005, and RSTP in 2015, formulated with the support of development partners prioritised bus service improvements through the rationalisation of routes as a precondition for introducing mass transit systems.

The latest study done under updating RSTP also focused on introducing BusNet for sustainable public transport solutions and the successful operation of the mass transit systems.

Passengers cannot enjoy the full benefits of the mass transit systems due to the inefficient public transport system. Also, because of this inefficient system, the number of private vehicles continues to rise on city roads.

Under the Road Transport Act 2018, the Dhaka Transport Coordination Authority (DTCA) is supposed to work on approving any new route, which led to the stoppage of RTC activities.

Sources said the vested group had already formed the committee under the Bangladesh Road Transport Authority (BRTA) by taking advantage of the inadequate role played by the interim government.

"Actually, the old committee has been revived with new members from police and politically-backed transport sector leaders," said an insider.

The interim government held a meeting with all stakeholders in December last year and announced to introduce the BRF system by withdrawing age-old buses from the city streets.

But it has yet to execute the plan to free the city roads from buses and trucks that are over 20 years old.

Though the Road Transport and Highways Division (RTHD) launched Nagar Paribahan under the DTCA on a new route in February, DMP and the Dhaka Bus Owners Association started operating old buses from Abdullahpur to different routes by painting them in pink.

The DTCA's Nagar Paribahan also followed the same model of Dhaka Nagar Paribahan, which was introduced on three bus route rationalisation (BRR) routes by the Awami League government without removing the hundreds of buses operating on the routes.

The Awami League government formed a special committee on BRR under the Local Government Division in 2018, with the then two mayors being made the chairman and co-chairman.

But the mayors compromised the BRF concept till 2024 because of politically-influenced transport leaders and police.

They were not interested in withdrawing all other companies' buses from the BRF routes. Neither could they manage DMP to provide support for the smooth operation of special buses.

Bus operators of Dhaka Nagar Paribahan had frequently complained to DTCA, RTHD, and DMP about non-cooperation from other bus operators on their routes.

But they never got their routes free for timely operation of services. All their bus stoppages were also occupied by other operators to make them wait long.

Under the BRR, the DTCA study proposed 42 routes to cover the Dhaka metropolitan area, dividing the bus services into nine clusters - each with the name of a colour.

However, after the Awami League government was ousted, the DMP also rejected the DTCA's routes and started operating self-styled routes by naming those east-west, north-south, and circular routes with the nexus of bus owners and BRTA.

smunima@yahoo.com