A seven-member committee the government set up to choose companies interested to run cabs in the capital Dhaka has failed to select any company by the deadline the communications ministry set earlier.
Members of the committee said that they would select companies after further assessment.
The Bangladesh Road Transport Authority on May 23 invited applications from companies interested to run 6,740 air-conditioned and non-air-conditioned taxi cabs in the capital.
Eight companies offered to run cabs when the selection committee first sat on June 12 to select interested companies.
The communications minister, Obaidul Quader, gave the committee till June 30 to select the companies.
The committee members again met on Sunday but did not select any company.
The BRTA director (engineering) Mohammad Saiful Hoque, also the member secretary on the committee, told New Age on Sunday that the committee had decided to take more time to assess applications.
The eight companies that offered to run taxi cabs are Nitol Motors, Sarika Traders, Expressway Company, Meghna Cements Mills, Toma Construction and Company, Ryan Consumers and Transport, Sigma Tel and Glorious Abashon Company.
In its May 23 advertisement, the BRTA said that the cabs would be allowed to carry passengers between the capital city and the nearby destinations such as Narayanganj, Savar, Tongi, Munsiganj, Dohar, Mawa ferry point, Gazipur, Aricha and Paturia.
In May, the government relaxed clauses in the Taxicab Service Guidelines of 2010 as none of the three bidders could fulfil the condition in 2012.
In 2002, the government allowed several companies to run 11,260 cabs in the city of which only 2,000 to 2,500 are currently running in the city.
-With New Age input
