Six more articulated buses to join BRTC fleet soon

FE Report The Bangladesh Road Transport Corporation (BRTC) will receive the last lot of articulated buses from India soon. Officials said of the 50 articulated buses, the BRTC already received 44 buses from India and the remaining six will arrive in the capital within a week. They said the buses have already reached Benapole land port for necessary clearance. "All our articulated buses will soon ply the roads to facilitate better bus service for commuters," said BRTC Chairman in-charge Abdullahel Karim. He said the Corporation is now completing necessary formalities to bring the buses from the Benapole Port by this month. The BRTC received the first batch of articulated buses from India under its US $ 1.0 billion line of credit (LoC) in January, two years after the LoC accord was signed. It launched 10 articulated buses on Joydevpur-Motijheel route in February after conducting several trial runs on the route at night. It took time to introduce the first-of-its-kind buses for making drivers familiar with the new technology and driving skills. The officials said of the 44 buses already received, 25 are now running on the Joydevpur-Motijheel route and 10 between Balughat of Cantonment and Motijheel without any trouble. The rest nine buses are now being used at the BRTC Gazipur training school to train the drivers. The BRTC Chairman said soon after receiving all the 50 buses, the BRTC will redesign the bus routes to ply those in metropolitan cities to give commuters a taste of new bus service. The government took the decision to buy articulated buses under the LoC after facing problems in spending the Indian credit. The credit was initially allotted for the Road Division of the Communications Ministry for road repair and maintenance purposes due to technical complication in abiding by India's conditions. Under the LoC, the BRTC also bought double-decker and single-decker air- conditioned buses, of which double-deckers are now running on the city's various roads. The Indian articulated buses are of 54 feet in length and 11 feet in height with passenger carrying capacity of around 120 people. As this kind of buses has two rigid bodies connected by a pivoting joint, it was assumed that it would not be possible to run those in the city. Though plying of these kinds of vehicles needs dedicated lane or a disciplined road system with comparatively a straight road, the BRTC, however, decided to introduce the buses in the city's typical routes competing with the traditional ones. The BRTC officials said they have received good response from the commuters and its earning has so far been better than those of other BRTC buses. They also claimed as many passengers prefer riding articulated buses on the Joydevpur-Motijheel route, many private bus owners and workers of the existing bus companies fear that they would lose passengers. Under a separate project, the Roads and Highway Department has taken a plan to ply sophisticated articulated buses from Joydevpur to Airport providing a dedicated bus lane.