Dhaka city running short of buses

Dhaka city is experiencing a significant shortage of buses and minibuses, the primary modes of public transport in the capital, causing daily hardship to commuters.

The permissible limit for buses and minibuses on the city’s 110 active routes is 7,043. This number is based on the need and route capacity recommended by a government committee.

However, only around 4,500 vehicles — approximately two-thirds of the required number — are currently operating on these routes, according to an analysis of data from the Bangladesh Road Transport Authority (BRTA).

As a result, many commuters are forced to turn to smaller vehicles like private cars, auto-rickshaws, and rickshaws, exacerbating the capital’s chronic traffic jams.

Sohel Mahmud, who works in a private firm, talked about the trouble he faces now while using public buses to commute to his Old Dhaka residence from his Farmgate office.

“Even a year ago, there was a [route No. 3] bus at Farmgate around 9:00pm every 10 minutes. Now, I often have to wait much longer — sometimes even half an hour,” he told this correspondent recently.

“And the service has also worsened,” he said, noting congested and untidy seats as well as reckless driving.

Experts and officials have attributed the current situation mainly to a prolonged pause in issuing new route permits for buses, and the influence of a powerful syndicate of transport leaders who reportedly determine the allocation of these permits.

They also noted that the launch of the metro rail, combined with the ongoing transport chaos and indiscipline, is discouraging businesses from investing in this sector.

According to them, other reasons behind the worsening traffic situation include the authority’s failure to rationalise the haphazardly drawn bus routes and launch a bus franchise system.

The system to bring all the buses under one or some particular companies in the past decade has been much discussed in recent years, but initiatives to launch it failed.

According to the Population and Housing Census 2022, over 10.2 million people live in the city. However, the current population is believed to be much higher.

There are 386 approved routes in the city and adjacent areas, but only 110 of them are now in operation, as the authorities have already synchronized many of these routes around a decade ago, BRTA data show.

As many as 5,594 buses have received route permits from Dhaka Metro Passenger and Goods Transport Committee, a government body led by the Dhaka Metropolitan Police commissioner.

A BRTA official, seeking anonymity, said the government committee recommended giving route permits to 7,043 buses and minibuses on 110 routes, considering the capacity and necessity.

But another committee led by the then Dhaka South City Corporation mayor Sayeed Khokon in March 2019 decided not to give route permits to new buses. They decided to go for rationalising the routes and launch a pilot project, the official said.

Route permits for 1,150 buses and minibuses have already been scrapped for crossing 20 years of economic life. So, 4,444 buses now have permission to operate in the city and adjacent areas, the BRTA official said.

“The pause on issuance of route permits for over five years is the major reason behind the depleting number of buses in the city,” he said.

Mohammad Shahidullah, member secretary of the government committee responsible for giving route permits, said, “We are now working on re-orgnaising the committee and will resume the process upon approval from the authorities concerned.”

Against this backdrop, the government on October 24 gave six months to withdraw outdated vehicles from the streets across the country, considering the shortage of buses.

THE SYNDICATE

Entrepreneurs lost interest in operating buses because nobody can get a route permit without paying a handsome amount of money to a powerful syndicate of transport owners, a transport leader said, wishing anonymity.

The vicious circle keeps anarchy and indiscipline in the sector alive to get benefits of the situation, he said.

The launch of the Uttara-Motijheel metro rail service last year is another reason behind the fall in the number of buses on this particular route, the transport leader said.

A BRTA official said most of the bus owners in the city rent out their vehicles to drivers on daily contracts.

In this system known as “trip-based service”, drivers pay a specific amount to the owner on the basis of daily trips. To maximise profits they drive recklessly to make as many trips as possible in a day, creating serious safety risk.

This system also kept the capital’s bus services from flourishing, the official said.

Transport expert Prof Moazzem Hossain said heavy-investment projects like the metro rail instead of bus service got priority during the Awami League government’s tenure.

He said bus services would cater four to five times more passengers than three metro rail lines in Dhaka, including two under construction the exisiting one, once these lines are in operation.

While the construction of the metro lines would require around Tk 1.5 lakh crore, developing bus services like those in London would require only Tk 8,000 crore, according to him.

But bus services did not get priority, and it was a “policy crime” of the previous government, he told The Daily Star on October 26.

RISE IN SMALL VEHICLES, CONGESTION

While the registration of buses and minibuses is witnessing a decline, the number of private cars and motorcycles is on the rise.

According to the BRTA, a total of 893 buses and minibuses got registered in the first nine months of this year in Dhaka city, while the number was 1,887 in 2023 and 2,233 in 2022.

On the other hand, 58,634 motorcycles and 7,384 private cars got registered in the first nine months of this year in the city, while the numbers were 90,403 and 9,687 respectively last year, BRTA data show.

Besides, the number of rickshaws, particularly battery-run rickshaws, saw a sharp rise in the city.

Prof Moazzem, a former director of the Accident Research Institute at Buet, blamed the shortage of buses for the rise in the number of small vehicles, which he said was the main reason behind the deterioration of traffic congestion.

“Improvement of bus services is much needed to reduce traffic congestion,” he said.

Experts suggested bus route rationalisation and introduction of a franchise system to bring discipline in bus services.

These methods were discussed for long and got momentum during late Dhaka North City Corporation Mayor Annisul Huq’s tenure. The initiative lost momentum after his death in November 2017.

The High Court in June 2019 directed the authorities concerned to bring bus services in all metropolitan cities under the franchise system.

A bus franchise pilot project was launched on the Ghatarchar-Kanchpur route in Dhaka in December 2021. Two more routes were added to the project later.

A failure to launch the system fully after around three more years is a clear indication that bus services were not the previous government’s priority, Prof Moazzem said.