The Dhaka Transport Coordination Authority (DTCA) is working to launch the bus route franchise (BRF) city service in a systematic way, the DTCA officials said during a meeting with journalists on Thursday.
The DTCA is prioritising capacity building of business beneficiaries, infrastructure development, and raising qualifications and skills of the operators, they told the Reporters for Rail and Road (RRR) members during the meeting at their headquarters in the capital.
Project Director (PD) of Bus Route Rationalisation Dhrubo Alam briefed the RRR members of the DTCA's activities and progresses. The briefing included discussions on the DTCA's transformation from the Dhaka Transport Coordination Board, policy-level work, bus route rationalisation (BRR), and shifting of all the city bus terminals.
DTCA Executive Director (ED) Neelima Akhter and other officials were present in the meeting.
The DTCA ED said, "Those who are now showing interest in the BRF, are only looking for profit. They do not understand the concept of company."
The qualification and skill of bus operators will be evaluated through a process. The evaluation committee will be working on all applications while guiding all concerned.
"Business has totally been absent in the city bus-centred business," she added, referring to lack of rational and structural ways to conduct business.
"The owners have so far poured money into the sector, but they've tried to do business without paying due importance to business development like other businesses," she added.
"Efforts have been made to minimise routes as well as length of routes - based on urban and suburban concept during the preliminary route selection under BRR," Dhrubo Alam said.
The DTCA has also conducted survey on the existing bus routes to collect data on the active and inactive routes as well as on the total number of buses with and without route permits, he added.
The PD also informed the reporters that all necessary preparatory works on bus routes, number of buses, and traffic survey will be completed within two months.
Draft of the BRF Act, spot selection for bus stoppages, bus bays, passenger sheds, intelligent transport system development, fare collection through 'rapid' pass, bus identification, scrapping of old bus and rehabilitation process, etc have been launched under the DTCA.
The PD said shifting of bus terminals from the city is also under process, and four of the 10 bus terminals are at various stages of preparation (for it).
Speaking on introducing e-ticketing, he noted that the DTCA has adequate rapid pass cards for providing support to metro-rail as well as the BRF, and added that more cards would be bought under the BRR project.
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