Dhaka: The capital Dhaka. At least 2 crore people live in this city of 1,463 square kilometers. Against this large population, the road network is 3,000 kilometers. As a result, it is normal for the city to be beyond its capacity. However, even amidst normality, some unusual processes are constantly suffering a large number of these people. Road anarchy has bent the spine of the capital. Along with this, crores of people are also deprived of safe transportation.
About 3,500 buses belonging to at least 50 different owners ply in the city of Dhaka, which is beyond its capacity. Far from any rules, these vehicles have no problem even obeying the laws of the road. In a word, the effective image of the proverb 'those who have the power are the ones who have the power' is the movement of buses on the roads of the capital. Although these vehicles, which have fulfilled the proverb by driving buses as they wish on the roads of Dhaka, have suffered for years, the zigzag pattern of movement on the roads has not changed year after year. Due to the existence of multiple companies and ownership of buses, despite various initiatives, the chaos on the roads has not been restored to order in the past two decades.
Researchers say that there is a huge weakness in the authorities behind such chaos on the roads. Similarly, bus routes have been given in various ways based on political considerations without any planning. As a result, along with the loss of road capacity, Bangladesh is not even close to the minimum science-based road planning.
BUET University professor and communications expert Dr. Hadiuzzaman explains the matter more clearly. According to him, there is no formal public transport in megacities like Dhaka. Although the city buses plying in Dhaka are called public transport, these buses do not fall within the definition of public transport.
Dr. Hadiuzzaman told Barta24.com, to be public transport, it must have a schedule. It must come at a frequency. Every five minutes or every 10 minutes. However, these buses in Dhaka do not fall within the definition of public transport. The approvals for buses that have been given for the past few decades have been given by the Regional Transport Committee or RTC. They had a huge weakness here. They don't just have to give approval. Buses need infrastructure. Bus stops, ticket counters are needed. At the end of the day, the buses will go to the depot. However, without considering these, bus route permits have been given solely for political considerations. Using political power, the same routes have been moved back and forth, given another route name, and more buses have been added there. As a result, numerous buses are plying on the same route. In this, we are nowhere near the planning that is supposed to be done as a service sector. We have gone a long way from science.
Now the question is where is the solution to this situation to speed up Dhaka's roads?
Experts say that the company will turn the streets into a listed bus service in the capital. It is possible to bring a more ideal transport system than the metro rail without making a big investment of Tk. 6,000 crore. This will reduce 70 percent of the traffic congestion in the capital. The 350,000 private cars plying in the capital will also come under control. This will restore order on the roads, on the other hand, double capacity service will also be ensured.
In this regard, Dr. Hadiuzzaman said, I think that now that we are talking about a change, an opportunity has come. In fact, we should take the buses under the control of a government-listed company. If the buses continue to operate sporadically under private ownership, it will not be possible to bring them under control or remove the buses that are unfit, without route permits, and that are in disrepair. The government has no control here. As a result, if the buses are brought under the control of the company, the buses whose economic life has ended will have to be removed from these routes. Then gradually the government and the shareholders will invest. Gradually new buses will come. Then it will be seen that the quality of the buses will also be good.
He also said, if necessary, we can make a wonderful operational plan.
Public transport is actually the backbone of the city. We can bring the buses to separate lanes. We can give them priority by going to the signal. Then the passengers of private cars will sit and watch as public transport passes by me. It is possible to bring good quality buses here with time saving. There will be air conditioning. There will be low floors. There will be double doors; it is possible to bring buses like London here. Then the users of private cars will be interested in buses. Without doing all this, the medicine to reduce private cars will not work.
This researcher also said that if 6 thousand crore taka is invested, it is possible to create excellent public transport in the entire city of Dhaka. By 2027, 3 metrorails will be built. About Tk. 2.5 lakh crore will be invested there. However, we have done research and found that if Tk. 6 thousand crore is invested, then it is possible to transport eight times more passengers by bus than by metrorail.
Meanwhile, even after a long time, the initiative of company-listed buses has been taken to restore order on the roads. The City Corporation and the Dhaka Transport Coordination Authority intend to complete the outline of which in the next 3 months.
In this regard, Neelima Akhtar, Executive Director of the Dhaka Transport Coordination Authority, said, we are thinking of operating company-based buses. And we will mainly emphasize on the route on which the buses are operating so that they can do so.
Dhaka South City Corporation Administrator Md. Nazrul Islam said, the representatives of the bus owners' association and workers will cooperate with us. They have assured us. We have also agreed that we will restore order in the transport system through mutual cooperation. Applications have been invited to come under the ambit of public transport. We will take the applications till November 30. The route will be fixed through the company. We will operate the vehicles under the company. Although it is called Nagar Paribarhan, here the company will be in ownership.
