Women commuters in Chittagong, particularly students and office goers, are inconvenienced when travelling inside the city, the special bus service that was introduced for them in 2006 is not running properly.
Under the project “Nirapod Mohila O Shishu Jatri Sheba,” the Chittagong City Corporation (CCC) introduced 13 buses in 2006 for carrying working women, female students and children only.
However, the CCC authority eventually made 12 of these buses public citing a reason that the project was in a loss.
The CCC officials said as the number of female passengers were not adequate and the new service was not promoted properly since its inauguration, the project had been facing losses for last two years.
The buses that were introduced under the project have been plying on route no 10 from Bahaddarhat to Patenga area in the Chittagong metropolitan city.
Currently the female commuters have to compete with male passengers to board these buses, complained a number of female commuters.
According to the traffic department of Chittagong Metropolitan Police, around 1,025 buses ply on 11 routes, 710 human haulers on 18 routes, 620 three-wheeler tempos on 18 routes and nearly 10,000 CNG-run auto-rickshaws ply the city streets daily.
Sirajum Munira, a student of Chittagong University and a resident of Halishahar area, said every day she has to wait for at least half an hour to get on a public transport that takes her to the Sholoshahar Railway Station from where she takes the university shuttle train.
When asked about the special bus service for women, she said she did know of any such service.
Shanoor Akhtar Urmi, employee of a private company and a resident of Patenga area said: “Often I have to stand inside a public transport as during office hours the limited number of female seats remain occupied.”
“I know about the bus service for women, but, I hardly find it on the road during rush hour,” she added.
When contacted, Joysen Barua, assistant engineer of CCC, and director of the project, told the Dhaka Tribune that currently they were running only one bus for women as running all the buses specifically for women was not financially viable.
He also said: “We cannot find any reason as to why the female passengers are not interested to take up the special bus service designated for them.”
Soon the authority will introduce two to three more buses in the city for the convenience of working women, he said.
