Volvo bus service no more attractive to commuters

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Members of the board of directors, staff and chairmen, vice chairmen and members of the sub committees of the IBFB pose for photograph at the concluding function of a two-day Strategic Management Retreat in the city recently.

Jasim Uddin Haroon
BRTC's Volvo double-decker bus service continues to fare poorly much to the dismay of city commuters, as the state-owned corporation turns a blind eye to the periodic maintenance and mismanagement, passengers and insiders alleged.
The middle class commuters who once found the Volvo service attractive are increasingly losing interest in the service.
They said lack of proper maintenance and servicing, each day 10-12 buses remain out of order, compounding the miseries of passengers travelling on these vehicles.
The buses, although of high-capacity, often get stranded on the roads owing to technical faults, causing traffic snarl in the city's bustling roads.
The volvo bus service, launched in early 2001, promised to provide world-class services to commuters, but this has become riskier for the passengers to travel. The cost of each Swedish-manufactured bus was Tk 13.7 million
But the top BRTC boss denied the allegations, saying that the costly maintenance, not his corporation's apathy, has made the services less-satisfactory.
"Spare parts of Volvo buses are not available in the local market. Those have to be procured from Sweden, which is time-consuming and expensive," Colonel Md Aktar Kamal, chairman of the Bangladesh Road Transport Corporation (BRTC), told the FE Thursday.
The huge maintenance cost combined with lower plying capacity has turned the service 'non-profitable,' he said.
Venting his anger, Rafiq Ahmed, a regular commuter who lives in Mirpur-12, said that Volvo buses have become 'a real worry' for the passengers.
"These buses often get stranded in the half-way through, making our travelling troublesome. We can't reach our destinations timely," he added.
"We are making losses mainly on Motijheel and Tongi routes due to delay in reaching destinations in time," the BRTC chief said.
BRTC officials said the Volvo buses, which were procured under a Swedish grant, can hardly ply more than 150 kilometres a day, as they are caught in the city's nagging traffic jam.
"A Volvo bus must have to ply at least 300 kilometres a day, if it wants to make profits," BRTC chairman added.
A Volvo double decker has the capacity to carry 118 passengers, but now it carries fewer than 70 passengers.
However, BRTC, a state owned entity commissioned in 1961, is now conducting a study on how to improve its services and reduce the maintenance costs.
"We started the survey last Sunday on how to ensure better services and raise our earnings. I think it will restore our lost image and help cut back bulging losses" Mr Kamal said.
Apart from this Volvo services, BRTC provides transport services to the commuters through its total bus fleet of 749 of which 127 operating in the Dhaka.
Around 200 buses remain under maintenance each day.