A dilapidated old public bus was seen struggling to ascend Moghbazar-Mouchak flyover in the city recently and finally managed to stabilise after emitting a thick layer of black smoke, making the surrounding air suffocating.
Before then, the bus exhaust caused irritation to passengers of other vehicles, and exposed serious health hazards due to inhaling such polluted air.
Air quality specialist Prof Ahmad Kamruzzaman Majumder told the FE that the unfit buses emit harmful smoke while ascending to the flyovers and elevated expressways or roads as the old engines do not have the capacity to run properly.
Most of the public buses run in Dhaka have expired in terms of their economic life, becoming so unfit that the engines are no longer fit for overhauling.
The sorry state of the city's public transportation system is causing serious air pollution and health hazards.
Dhaka's air quality on Wednesday ranked 2nd most polluted in the world, according to AQI, a Swiss air quality technology company. An estimated 7.0 million people die annually across the globe due to the air pollution, it said.
In August last, Bangladesh ranked as the worst air-polluted country in the world, losing life expectancy of average Bangladeshis by 6.8 years, according to a recent study of the University of Chicago.
According to the Bangladesh Road Transport Authority (BRTA), there are 5.7 million registered vehicles in Bangladesh. Of the total, 480,000 are unfit, according to a 2021 estimate of the road transport ministry.
Transport experts and air quality specialists, however, claimed that one-third of the registered vehicles are unfit.
Of the total unfit vehicles, one-third is operating in Dhaka city alone. Around 500,000 buses have become unfit in Dhaka alone. There are 2.03 million registered vehicles in Dhaka as of July this year.
On an average, large vehicles like buses and trucks have 20-25 years of economic life and can be operated on the streets.
"The maintenance cost rises manifold after a vehicle expires its economic life," said transport expert and Bangladesh University of Engineering and Technology (BUET) Professor Md. Hadiuzzaman.
It rises to a level that making profit from such a bus with regular maintenance becomes unrealistic. Therefore, the owners do not service or maintain those buses. And that those poor condition buses emit harmful smoke, he explained.
The government had taken an initiative to stop running the buses of more than 20 years old, but the owners foiled the move. Furthermore, the authorities concerned could not move to make the route franchise system operational due to lack of buses having a good condition, the experts lamented.
Vehicle fitness is a different thing. A total of 32 separate components of vehicles need to be examined to certify a fit-vehicle. And, a fitness certificate is being provided every year without following the proper protocol.
A fitness test is not necessarily a visible thing - to see what level of harmful emissions is taking place from a fit vehicle and an unfit vehicle.
The government and the Bangladesh Road Transport Authority (BRTA) do not have the capacity to examine the fitness, claimed Prof. Md. Hadiuzzaman demanded.
"In Bangladesh, fitness check up for vehicles or buses is not carried out scientifically or mechanically," he said, claiming that as many as 60 per cent of the buses plying in Dhaka do not have the capacity of carrying out an engine overhaul.
Air quality specialist Prof Ahmad Kamruzzaman Majumder said that vehicle-induced emissions contribute 15 per cent of the air pollution and, in terms of harmful emissions, vehicles cause the worst.
"Vehicles induced emission mostly affects pregnant mothers and children dangerously causing air pollution-related diseases," he added.
Of a previous survey of 5,000 buses in 2019, one-third of the total vehicles registered are unfit, he, director of Centre for Atmospheric Pollution Studies (CAPS), Stamford University Bangladesh, added.
Office Secretary of Dhaka Road Transport Owners' Association Samdani Khandakar claimed that there is no unfit or life-expired vehicle plying in Dhaka.
"Authorities do not allow such unfit vehicles to run in the city. We face difficulties running new buses while the old one is in no question," he told the FE.
All the buses aged over 20 years have been taken out of Dhaka and are now running in other cities, he added.
Md. Mahbub-E-Rabbani, a director of BRTA, claimed that the government has a well mechanism to single out unfit vehicles and phase out from the roads.
He said the BRTA cannot monitor the road all the time given its capacity and manpower. The other government agencies involved need to work together to phase out the unfit vehicles, he added.
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