BRTC to launch 100 more CNG buses on city routes

The Bangladesh Road Transport Corporation is going to launch 100 more CNG-run brand-new buses on different routes of the capital next week in a bid to expand the state-run transport services, said a top official on Saturday.
‘The prime minister will inaugurate the new services by swiping a integrated circuit card at a function to be held any day between April 17 and 22,’ the corporation director (technical), Colonel Akter Kamal, told New Age.
The communication ministry sources said the corporation had procured the 52-seated buses with funding from the Nordic Development Fund and the cost of each bus was Tk 33 lakh including taxes.
‘The 100 Chinese buses have already reached Dhaka and will be handed over to the BRTC authorities within the week with all necessary papers and equipment as per agreement with the contractor,’ the corporation official said.
The buses will ply five routes in the city — from Chowrasta (Gazipur) to Chittagong Road (Dhaka), Azampur to Motijheel, Gabtoli to Gulshan-2, Mohammadpur to Motijheel and Mirpur to Motijheel.
According to the corporation, the sky colour seats will be used by general people while maroon seats will be reserved for women, children and people with disability.
In an agreement, signed between the BRTC and the N-Wave Co (Bd) Ltd, bus-inside-devices will be introduced in the 100 buses within the next two months for using integrated circuit cards.
The manual ticketing system, however, will continue along with the IC cards, said the N-Wave technical manager, Ashraf Uddin.
On the inauguration day, the corporation will organise a road-show and the prime minister will swipe an e-ticket on bus-inside-device to open the services, he added.
The company has already installed 17 such IC card booths for the Uttara-Azimpur route, and will install 100 more booths for the other BRTC routes.
‘We have already received a good response from customers as the sale of advance ticket is satisfactory,’ Ashraf said, adding that it would take two more months for the e-ticketing system to be fully operative.
Currently, about 450 BRTC buses are plying the Dhaka metropolitan area. Of them, a number of buses are being used by universities, colleges and other government offices on rent.
The corporation had earlier taken an initiative to procure 400 CNG-run buses. Of them, 300 will be procured from South Korea on credit from the Economic Development Cooperation Fund but the initiative is still under process.
‘We try to speed up the initiative to procure the buses and a meeting will be held on June 2 in this regard,’ the BRTC official said.

Courtesy of NewAge