No respite from anarchy in public transport

Some 114 people were killed and 210 others injured in 56 road accidents in Dhaka between 1 January and 15 April, according to Bangladesh Passengers’ Association of Bangladesh.

Transport experts said reckless driving and faulty routes were the main cause of so many accidents and deaths in the capital.

Besides, they said most of the drivers are unskilled and drug addicted while majority of the buses and mini-buses are unfit.

Bangladesh University of Engineering and Technology (BUET) professor and transport expert Shamsul Hoque said the route permission system in Dhaka is unscientific.

“Permission for routes is given based on commercial and political considerations,” Shamsul Hoque, told Prothom Alo, adding that once the buses took the the roads, there was a reckless competition between bus owners as well as between the drivers.

Victim of such reckless competition between two buses at Karwan Bazar area, undergraduate student of Government Titumir College, Rajib Hossain, lost one of his hands and later died. In 2015, a youth was killed after a bus turned over while racing with another buses in front of Star Kabab at Karwan Bazar. In 2014, senior journalist Jaglul Ahmed Chowdhury was killed in a road accident, pushed out of a running bus.   

According to a recent study of BUET, due to traffic congestion, vehicles in the capital can hardly move at a speed more than five kilometres in per hour. As per a study of World Bank last year, the speed was seven kilometres per hour.

When vehicles in a city move so slowly, it is reckless driving and faulty route permit system that are the causes of so many deaths, experts pointed out. 

According to Bangladesh Road Transport Authority (BRTA), a total of 7,937 bus and mini buses ply along 246 routes in Dhaka and its adjacent areas.

Many bus owners have one or two buses. Dhaka Metropolitan Regional Transport Committee gives permission for movement of the vehicles. The committee members include police and representatives from BRTA, different departments of the government and bus owners and workers. 

After the application for permission, traffic police, the opinions of bus owners-workers and the clout of the applicants are taken into consideration.

The route permission was given after setting certain conditions of the Motor Vehicle Act, without any consideration of passengers’ route demands, population density or road capacity.  

Due to unplanned and unnecessary routes and innumerable owners, the buses enter unhealthy competition. As there are many owners under the same company, the drivers of buses join in a competition as to who will pick up passengers first and this causes road accidents.

Stakeholders said the buses are unfit. The buses do not come to a complete halt to pick up passengers. The bus windows often break. The bus fare is displayed in the buses. The seats are broken and shabby and the buses are overcrowded.

As per law, there should be 31 seats in a mini bus and 51 seats in larger buses. But the owners and workers add 10 more seats to earn more.

Transport expert Shamsul Hoque said, “A bus service Dhaka Chaka operates in the Gulshan area in the capital. The buses are in good condition fit and there is no competition among the drivers of those buses. But in the rest of the city, drivers are busy looking out for passengers and at the same time looking back to see the movement of other buses, and then checking whether the other buses are picking passengers up ahead of them. The drivers don’t look at the road. Accidents occur, traffic congestion is created and disorder prevails.   

According to BRTC, there are 35,000 buses and mini buses, half of which operate outside Dhaka. Some of them are out of order. Fitness of 18,000 of these bus and mini buses are not updated. There are five thousand of unfit buses in the capital.

According to transport owners, half of the drivers in Dhaka are young and drug addicted. Most of them have no legal licenses.   

BRTA data shows there are 3.30 million vehicles in the country. And the numbers of licenses are about 2 million. Generally, the number of licenses should be more than double of the vehicles. More than one driver is required in commercial vehicles. In Dhaka, the bus owners give bus to the drivers on contract. When the drivers are hired on the basis of salary, they target more income by unhealthy competition on the road.

When asked, Dhaka Road Transport Owners’ Association general secretary Khandaker Enayet Ullah told Prothom Alo that it is true that there is lack of skilled drivers and many of them are drug-addicts.

He also said that they instructed bus owners to sit with drivers and make them aware of road safety at least twice a month.

Bangladesh Road Transport Authority (BRTA) chairman Moshiar Rahman told Prothom Alo that they are trying to increase the number of mobile courts to check reckless driving. Currently, there are only four mobile courts.

Moshiar Rahman also said that a total of 55,000 vehicles, which have no fitness certificates for the past 10 years, have been given a month’s time to get these certificates. If they fail to manage the certificate in this time, their registration will be cancelled, he added.

He said that BRTA is trying to sort out the mess in the transport sector, but many organisations are involved. If these organisations work together, it would be possible to bring about some order to the sector, he added.

The mayor of Dhaka north Annisul Huq, who passed away recently,  took initiative to bring all the public buses of Dhaka city under an umbrella of only six companies to avert unhealthy competition of buses on the road. But, the initiative has seen no progress.

The proposed plan recommends 7,940 buses and mini-buses of six different colours on six basic routes. Six companies will operate the service among the routes and the owners of buses will incorporate themselves with the companies.

The proposed franchising system would involve Tk 30 billion. Prime minister Sheikh Hasina directed to implement the proposal in May, 2017. But after mayor Annisul Huq’s death in November 2017, the project has not yet seen any further progress.

*This report, originally published in Prothom Alo print edition, has been rewritten in English by Rabiul Islam and Imam Hossain.