A move is underway to transfer the authority of issuing route permit to bus operators to Dhaka Transport Coordination Authority (DTCA) from the Bangladesh Road Transport Authority (BRTA) to manage the chaotic traffic in the city streets.
Officials said the transport ministry was examining the legal provisions governing the two agencies in the process of the switchover.    Â
At present regional transport committee (RTC) formed under the BRTA Ordinance 1999, with Dhaka Metropolitan Police (DMP) commissioner as its head, gives route permits to bus operators upon their application. The allocation is stipulated to be based on a maximum ceiling on buses plying each route.
However, innumerable route permits have been issued and more than 6,000 buses ply 209 routes in the capital city by official count.
Experts found out that these gaggles of transports cause severe traffic jam for the overlapping of buses on same routes. These transport vehicles pass crisscrossing through important traffic points like Farmgate, Mahakhali, Malibagh, Motijheel Shapla Chattar and Gulistan.
Official sources said the move to shift the responsibility has been taken following a request from DTCA as the DTCA Act vests authority in it to carry out necessary policy and planning on bus-route selection and execution. According to article 9 (pa) of the DTCA Act 2012, formulation of necessary policy and planning of routes and lanes and execution of those are one of the authorities and activities of the DTCA.
The coordination authority in its letter on October 19 requested the Secretary of Road Transport and Highway Division (RTHD) to take measures for shifting the authority on route permit to the DTCA through "reliable and planned studies and coordination with the existing infrastructure and public transports".
Sector experts said it is necessary to conduct accurate study and planning before approving any route as the existing bus operators also cause severe traffic jam for parking and competing with one another.
Professor Shamsul Hoque said route permit is given through holistic measures by considering the issues of infrastructure and investment models, which is absent from this sprawling city.
The expert, however, suggested the formation of an integrated mass transport authority under which issues like route permits will be "continuously studied, planned and executed with the ultimate goal of providing efficient public transport to commuters".
An official of RTHD said the ministry was scrutinizing the provision of the DTCA Act and BRTA rules to take a decision in this regard. He said as a new BRTA act is also in the making, the division is now reviewing it to avoid any conflict.
According to a study by DTCA, at present 47 per cent of around 30 million trips generated in Dhaka city are carried out by buses and the frequency is likely to increase more than 70 per cent over next 15 to 20 years.
The DTCA study titled 'Dhaka Bus Network and Regulation Reform Implementation Study', done under the Clean Air Sustainable Environment (CASE) project with the technical support of the World Bank, recommended giving bus route permits in coordination with the land and inhabitance management.
Another study done by the DTCA in 2013 also recommended reducing bus routes to 91 from the then 152 by 2016 and 72 by 2020 with the target of accommodating with the mass-transit system. But practically, experts said, reflection of the recommendation was not found during issuance of route permits in the last two years.
The study also found that 152 routes could be reduced to half only by reducing the overlapping of routes.
It is found that nearly 50 per cent members of the Metropolitan RTC are from the group of owners and workers' associations of different modes of transport -- bus, truck, covered van, auto-rickshaw. There is hardly any technical expert on the committee.
A Financial Express analysis also found one-third of 209 routes concentrated in and around Mirpur area -- half of those, however, start from Pallabi and nearby areas.
Some 74 operators are found operating passenger buses from Mirpur areas towards different destinations, overlapping and crisscrossing through Mirpur 10, Farmgate, Shapla Chattar, Shahbagh, Airport, Mahakhali, and Ittefaq crossing. The number of buses moving around the areas would be no less than 2,000. Â
About a dozen Mirpur-centric routes end up in busy business district of Motijheel showing last stoppages as Shapla Chatter, Bangladesh Bank and even Notor Dame College.
At the same time, buses on 40 routes cross Shapla Chatter for different destinations like Sayedabad, Kamalapur, Airport, Mohammadpur, Abdullahpur and so.
The overlapping of bus routes is also noticeable on around 30-kilometre-long north-south corridor namely Gazipur-Mahakhali where buses of 60 routes run from Tongi, Abdullahpur, Uttara, Kuril and Khilkhet direction at a time.
smunima@yahoo.com
DTCA to issue bus route permits, instead of BRTA
Munima Sultana | Published: December 23, 2015 00:00:00 | Updated: February 01, 2018 00:00:00
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