The suffering of BRTC commuters is its peak; authorities have reduced the number of vehicles available for women and school students in the capital.
The BRTC introduced the two special schemes three years ago, with about 22 buses set aside for women and school students. Now only 7-8 of those buses are running.
Despite recent directives, from Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina and Communications Minister Obaidul Quader, to increase the number of buses under the scheme, the state-run BRTC has, for unknown reasons, reduced the number of buses.
BRTC former chairman, Major (retd) MM Iqbal, inaugurated the scheme in July 2012. It was later suspended because of a shortage of busses.
An official, seeking anonymity, said the reduction occurred because authorities had to use the special service busses to fill the shortage of staff buses for its own employees, and needed to run combined services, as opposed to student or women only ones, to earn enough money.
The women and school bus services were at one point suspended for a few days because of a shortage of passengers.
The BRTC official also said; “If the authorities run the services with a large number of busses, it will have to be heavily subsidised.”
Sajeda Munir, a resident of Mirpur, said; “I usually wait for the bus, but I cannot find it on the road these days.”
Only a limited number of buses under both schemes ran on the existing routes when the service began in 2011.
“We have urged the authorities concerned to increase the number of school buses. But the BRTC is now trying to stop the services,” she said.
The BRTC Director (Admin and Operations) Nikhil Ranjan Roy, told the Dhaka Tribune: “The number of buses has been reduced for the school services: in December-January most of the schools are closed for winter vacation.”
“We also reduced the number of busses running due to the recent political violence,” he said.
Nikhil said; “We are trying to overcome the crisis; new buses will be added to the scheme.”
According to the BRTC sources, when the women-only scheme was inaugurated there were 4 buses on the Rampura-Motijheel route, 2 on the Tongi-Motijheel route, and 2 on the Mirpur-Motijheel route.
Now the numbers of busses have reached half what they were.
Likewise, BRTC initially provided 14 buses for the schools service to 26 schools situated at different areas from Mirpur 12 to Azimpur in the capital. At present, the numbers are as low as 3 to 4.
