The long-awaited bus franchise plan for Dhaka is all set to start on the Ghatarchar-Motijheel route on a pilot basis from April 1, 2021, says Dhaka South City Corporation (DSCC) Mayor Sheikh Fazle Noor Taposh.
The DSCC mayor was speaking after a meeting with the Bus Routes Rationalization Committee (BRRC) at Nagar Bhaban (South) on Tuesday. It was the 14th meeting of the committee thus far.
Taposh expressed his hope that by implementing the bus franchising system in Dhaka he would be able to bring about discipline to the public transport system in the capital, an initiative first visualized by the late DNCC mayor Annisul Huq in 2015.
Taposh said: “We will start a pilot project to implement the bus franchising system from Dhaka north city’s Ghatarchar to Motijheel under the DSCC from April 1 next year.
“To make that happen, we’ve asked the stakeholders to complete all relevant tasks by Match 31.”
As many as 22 bus companies have so far proposed to operate their vehicles through nine clusters on 42 routes across the city in line with the proposed bus rationalization system, the DSCC mayor added.
“We’ve finalized their suggestions, depending on which we’re going to partially launch the bus franchising system,” he concluded.
Dhaka North City Corporation (DNCC) Mayor Atiqul Islam, who attended the meeting as the joint convener of the committee, said that matters of how the piloting of the initiative would be implemented were discussed at the meeting.
“We have discussed topics such as drivers and helpers' dress code, and also locations of bus stands and passenger sheds.
“It will take at least three months to finalize these issues,” he said, adding that the bus rationalization would gradually be expanded throughout the capital.
DMP Commissioner Md Shafiqul Islam, BRTA Chairman Noor Mohammad Majumder, BRTC Chairman Md Ehsan-E-Elahi, Rajuk Chairman Said Noor Alam, DTCA Executive Director Khandaker Rakibur Rahman and transport owners were also present at the meeting.
