Most transport operators are charging passengers more than the fares fixed by the government after it hiked prices of CNG and fuel oils twice in 2011 and
commuters attributed the reason mainly to lack of monitoring.
‘You will hardly find a bus operating in the city which charges the fares fixed by the government,’ said Rumana, a resident of Mohammadpur. ‘Most of the buses take Tk 10 as minimum fare,’ she said.
Sajjad Hossain, who lives in Mirpur area of the city, said transport operators were charging fares at whim because there was no government monitoring of compliance.
‘After the first round of transport fare hike in 2011, we saw the government-fixed fare charts in buses and minibuses and law enforcement agencies often checked them,’
he said. ‘But now they simply don’t care about the government-fixed fares.’
Faria Pinky of Bashundhara residential area said, ‘I have stopped travelling by CNG-run auto-rickshaws simply because I cannot afford the fares they charge. Sometimes
they charge four or five times the metre fare,’ he said.
After the government increased CNG prices on May 16, 2011, bus fares were raised by Tk 0.35 a kilometre in Dhaka and Chittagong and the minimum fare was set at Tk 7
for buses and Tk 5 for minibuses operating in the capital.
It also raised the CNG-run auto-rickshaws fare from Tk 7 per kilometre to Tk 7.50 and kept the minimum fare unchanged at Tk 25. Besides, it increased the waiting
charge from Tk 1.25 per minute to Tk 1.30.
The second round of fuel
oil price hike came into effect on September 18 and a day later the authorities increased transport fares by five paisas a kilometre for buses and minibuses and 14
paisas for CNG-run auto-rickshaws. The minimum fares were, however, not increased.
Commuters said transport operators like- Megacity Service, Malancha Transport, Rajdhani Express, ATCL, Taranga Plus Transport Limited, Labbayek Transport Pvt Limited,
Shatabdi Transport Limited, Winner Transport, Borak Paribahan, Falgun Transport, Midway Transport Limited, Nisharga Transport, Raja City Transport, Moitree Transport,
ETC Transport Company Ltd, Balaka Service, Silk City Service and Shikar Paribahan were charging higher than the government-fixed fares.
On the other hand, most of the drivers of CNG-run auto-rickshaws are charging several times the metre fare.
Bangladesh Road Transport Authority enforcement department director Mohammad Moshiar Rahman told New Age recently that they were trying their best to enforce the
government-fixed fares.
‘Currently we have one executive magistrate and five district administration executive magistrates are helping us to operate mobile courts in the city,’ he added.
Moshiar Rahman said that in March their five officers had operated as many mobile courts for two days to check irregularities.
‘Actually the Dhaka Metropolitan Police has a major role to play in enforcing the government-fixed fares,’ he added.
A BRTA official, who operated a mobile court in March, said it was unfortunate that after 20 years of service they were compelled to operate mobile courts.
‘If DMP wants, it can implement the government-fixed fares in three days,’ he said.
BRTA engineering department director Mohammad Saiful Hoque said that after the first round of transport fare hikes in 2011, the authoritied had prepared fare charts
for transports on every route.
‘After the second round of transport fare hike, we prepared fare charts only for inter-district buses,’ he added.
Dhaka Metropolitan Police joint commissioner (traffic) Mahbubur Rahman admitted that the government-fixed transport fares could not be implemented the way it should
have been.
‘We are conducting regular drives and the number of cases being filed everyday for violation of rules like ignoring the government-fixed fares have increased by 500
to 600 in recent times,’ he said.
‘But it is true that the situation has not improved much,’ he added.
Courtesy of New Age
