Private bus and minibus passengers in the capital are paying more than double the fare they are supposed to be charged according to a fare chart set by the government, the Dhaka Tribune has found.
Although they are the most widely used mode of transportation in Dhaka, passengers said the Bangladesh Road Transport Authority (BRTA) and Dhaka Metropolitan Police (DMP) had failed to enforce the government-fixed fare rate.
The Dhaka Tribune found most bus and minibus operators in the capital were charging more than double the fares set by BRTA. Some operators charged three or four times the BRTA rate.
According to the current BRTA fare chart, updated in November, 2011, the fare in the city was fixed at Tk1.6 per kilometre. The BRTA has also set the total fare for travel from one end of a route to the other and has set fares from one stop to the next.
The minimum BRTA fixed minibus fare is Tk5 and for a bus it is Tk7.
But city bus lines and minibus operators only publish the government-fixed end-to-end fares on their tickets because end-to-end commuters are rare in the city. Moreover, drivers only stop at two or three stops along the route, and then overcharge passengers.
Asgar Ali, an employee of a private bus company, said: “This is nothing new, city bus staff never followed the BRTA fare chart and always charged passengers twice to four-times the chart fares. But BRTA officials and traffic police apparently do not seem to mind.”
He said most bus conductors charge Tk10 to Tk13 on short-distance trips from Farmgate to Taltala that should cost Tk5 according to the BRTA chart.
The Dhaka Tribune found that Silk City, Ena Paribahan, non-air conditioned minibus services plying the Pallabi-Jatrabari route, charged Tk13 for the Farmgate to Taltala service without providing extra facilities such as direct service, locked gates or guaranteed sitting service.
A conductor of Ena, seeking anonymity, said the company instructed staff to charge the high fares.
BRTA information from May 30, 2013, showed that 2,281 privately-owned buses and 3,126 privately-owned minibuses were permitted to operate on 178 routes in Dhaka and its outskirts.
When contacted, K Enayet Ullah, secretary of the Dhaka Sarak Paribahan Malik Samity [an association of private transport companies in Dhaka], also the owner of Ena Paribahan, admitted that overcharging is illegal. But he denied that his bus service overcharged passengers.
Md Matiur Rahman, director (enforcement) of BRTA told the Dhaka Tribune: “Monitoring of bus fares in the city is a continuous process, and it is ongoing.”
He said several BRTA monitoring teams keep an eye on what bus companies charge, adding: “If any bus company charges extra, we will take steps against them.”
Dhaka Metropolitan Police Joint Commissioner (Traffic) Moslem Uddin told the Dhaka Tribune: “We have been monitoring the situation. If bus staff charge more than the government-fixed fare, commuters can seek help from traffic police officials in the area.”
“The helpline number of the traffic control room is written down on the back of different vehicles and on almost every CNG auto-rickshaw. If a commuter needs help, he or she can telephone the control room,” he said.
