The Communications Ministry and Bangladesh Road Transport Authority (BRTA) are still determined to impose high rates of fare for new taxicabs to be pressed into service in the capital from Pahela Baishakh.
An inter-ministerial meeting held at the ministry on March 23 took the decision upon requests from the Bangladesh Army Welfare Trust and Toma Construction and Company Ltd.
The meeting fixed Tk100 for the first two kilometres, Tk34 for each kilometre next and Tk8.5 for one-minute wait during traffic jam for air-conditioned cabs. For non-AC cabs, the rates are Tk50, Tk20 and Tk5 respectively.
“We have not taken any new decision on new fare rates. It may be reviewed if cab operators fail to ensure quality service,” Communications Minister Obaidul Quader said at his ministry yesterday after a meeting with CNG-run Auto-rickshaw Owners’ Association.
Earlier, he said new taxicabs would start running in Dhaka this month with superb taxicabs manufactured in Japan, adding that Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina would inaugurate the taxicab service in the month of Baishakh.
At least 60 new taxicabs are on way to Bangladesh from Japan which will be pressed into service in the capital on Pahela Baishakh that falls on April 14. The Army Welfare Trust and Toma Construction Ltd got contracts to import 30 taxicabs each, said BRTA officials.
The Army Welfare Trust on August 1 last year sought permission from the communications ministry to press 400 cabs into service on streets in Dhaka and Chittagong within four months. The same year on July 14, the ministry allowed Toma Construction Ltd to press 250 more cabs into service in the capital.
Toma Construction Ltd had called for increasing the fares for the first two kilometres for AC cabs from Tk60 to Tk130.