BRTC to scrap unfit buses

The government is going to scrap a good number of unfit buses of the state-owned Bangladesh Road Transport Corporation (BRTC).

Official sources said the vehicles that have become unfit for use in streets would be scrapped.

The CNG-run cheapest buses imported from China and the costly Volvo buses are among the unfit buses facing the axe off the roads, they added.

The officials said a committee under the road transport and bridges ministry has already started inspecting the vehicles in different BRTC depots.

The scrapped buses will be up for auction after getting the report of the committee.

"The number of buses to be declared scrapped would be no less than 150," said an official involved with the inspection.

In the last eight years, the BRTC added more than 945 buses to its fleet, including 275 single-decker Chinese buses and 290 Indian double-deckers at Tk 7.0 billion.

The procurement only just increased the number of buses to more than 1,200, but it failed to make operative more than 900 buses after purchase.

Of the buses purchased, the Chinese ones started turning unfit within two to three years after procurement.

On average, sources said, 30 to 40 per cent BRTC buses remained inoperative in different depots.

Despite an increase in the number of buses, the BRTC remains a loss-making entity of the government.

Its fleet comprise three bus types-single-decker, double-decker and articulated ones.

The buses, mainly imported from India, China, South Korea and Sweden, have remained parked at 17 bus depots throughout the country.

Large numbers of buses lie uncared for at seven depots in and around Dhaka city, including in Gazipur, Gabtoli, Joharsahara, Motijheel and Kalyanpur depots.

However, another source said the move to scrap the buses was made to manage the parking of the buses to be imported soon.

As space of the depots is saturated with the buses, putting the buses on auction will help the state bus operator to manage space.

The BRTC has already signed an agreement to procure 200 buses from India as per its second line of credit.

These buses are set to arrive by the end of this year.

[email protected]