The New Nation - Internet Edition

Staff Reporter

In the wake of stiff competition, a privately owned city transport service yesterday called upon the government to review the draft policy of the passenger bus fares and fix the reasonable fares taking greater interest of the owners into account.

The Bikalpa Paribahan Group made the call at a press conference held at the Dhaka Reporters Unity following the publishing of news reports on the draft policy for the passenger bus fare.

'If the Government executes the policy considering the interest of the bus owners and passengers, all will get rid of harassment,' said the group's secretary general Adv Belayet Hossain.

Presenting a comparative analysis between CNG-driven buses and diesel-driven buses, he claimed that the maintenance cost of the CNG-run buses is almost near to the maintenance cost of diesel-driven buses. "So the CNG-driven bus fares should not be lowered in the policy," he argued.

Besides, import price of the CNG-driven bus and its spare parts and depreciation are higher than that of diesel-driven bus. Moreover, the CNG-operated bus is to spend more time at the filling stations for taking gas, he added.

The draft of the proposed policy of the passenger bus now awaits the Communications Ministry's approval.

Commuters in different routes of the city often complain that CNG-driven buses and minibuses have been charging fares almost equal to those of diesel-driven buses and minibuses although the price of gas is much lower than diesel.

Bikalpa Paribahan operates both CNG and diesel driven direct bus services in the capital on four routes-between Mirpur and Motijheel, Mirpur-12 and Jatrabari, Mirpur-1 and Jatrabari, and Mirpur-12 and Dhakeswari Temple. It has been charging extra fares on passengers for long time without the permission of the authorities concerned. However, Bikalpa Paribahan is now facing stiff competition as several other private transport services have started operating their minibuses on the same routes. As a result, the income of Bikalpa Paribahan has fallen drastically.

Bikalpa Paribahan Group's leaders Adv Nur Mohammad, ASM Shafiqul Alam, Manotosh Kumar Shah, Jahirul Islam and Kamrul Islam Arju, among others, were present at the conference.