Make bus services respectable please
Sunday, 22 November 2009
The quality of the buses plying the Motijheel-Uttara route have become too below-standard for some reason. It coincides with the coming to power of the Awami League government beginning this year. One wonders if there is any link. Have the good companies been driven out by muscle power just as the delinquents control 'tenders' ? Whatever the reason, commuters on this route have really been suffering.
'Local' buses that are in terribly dilapidated conditions, have replaced the dignified double-decker Volvo buses and have been doing brisk business ever since. Commuters are compelled to huddle into them in the absence of better alternatives. I have been carrying on a survey of sorts, talking to the drivers and helpers. They are employed on a daily basis and paid per round trip by the so-called companies that seem to have no service standard at all. Some of these junks sometimes have been even found to catch fire from overheated engines ! Apart from the uncouth conduct of both drivers and their helpers, the seats are filthy, side view mirrors are missing, suspension and brakes seem to be dangerously worn out.
If the bus services were standardized, even the car-owners would be happy to use them, both to avoid the hassle of traffic jams and to reduce the per capita exhaust and thus contribute towards an environmentally sustainable lifestyle.
May I request the authorities concerned to please let decent bus companies come in and operate on this very busy route, instead of the ones that seem to be run by roughnecks who have simply picked their junks from Dholaikhal scrapyard ?
Mohammad Ibrahim Shah
Sector 7, Uttara, Dhaka 1230
'Local' buses that are in terribly dilapidated conditions, have replaced the dignified double-decker Volvo buses and have been doing brisk business ever since. Commuters are compelled to huddle into them in the absence of better alternatives. I have been carrying on a survey of sorts, talking to the drivers and helpers. They are employed on a daily basis and paid per round trip by the so-called companies that seem to have no service standard at all. Some of these junks sometimes have been even found to catch fire from overheated engines ! Apart from the uncouth conduct of both drivers and their helpers, the seats are filthy, side view mirrors are missing, suspension and brakes seem to be dangerously worn out.
If the bus services were standardized, even the car-owners would be happy to use them, both to avoid the hassle of traffic jams and to reduce the per capita exhaust and thus contribute towards an environmentally sustainable lifestyle.
May I request the authorities concerned to please let decent bus companies come in and operate on this very busy route, instead of the ones that seem to be run by roughnecks who have simply picked their junks from Dholaikhal scrapyard ?
Mohammad Ibrahim Shah
Sector 7, Uttara, Dhaka 1230