All efforts undertaken during past governments including the previous interim administration to fix the capital city's chaotic traffic seem to have come to naught. Even if the recent launching of the AI-based traffic rules violation monitoring system by the Dhaka Metropolitan Police (DMP) has to some extent left its disciplinary impact on the behaviour of the city's rather unruly traffic, especially on the errant bikers, the
non-roadworthy, ramshackle buses that do not care about any rules still rule the city's roads. According to the Bangladesh Road Transport Authority (BRTA) data, 30 per cent of the registered buses and minibuses have long past their operating life with the expiry of their route permits and fitness certificates. So, bringing the fragmented stakeholders under a single, organised franchise is a daunting challenge. Under the system, these companies and their owners would lose their individual power and lucrative daily-contract operations. Even worse, they pressurise the authorities to alter routes to suit their traditional, chaotic business models, rendering scientific routing ineffective.
Despite years of planning, the authorities continue to approve unscientific and overlapping bus routes. The special committee responsible for approving bus route permits in Dhaka has reportedly been continuing to allow what experts term 'unscientific' routes for both air-conditioned and non-air-conditioned buses over the past one and a half years. During this period, the authorities also failed to decommission run-down passenger buses and trucks including covered vans following the expiry of their 20-year and 25-year operating lifespan respectively. Many new routes (like AC bus franchises) fail to launch on the pretext of their commercial unviability.
That is said to be holding operators from securing the necessary financing or putting new vehicles on the road. Reports have it that transport owners so far have hardly showed any interest to operate on the newly approved routes, including those meant for AC services. The Dhaka Metro Passengers and Goods Transportation (DMPGT) Committee, which is headed by the Dhaka Metropolitan Police commissioner, reportedly approved 690 AC buses on 10 routes following its last meeting held in November last year. It is worthwhile to note that the Committee was formed during the interim government under the Section 27 of Road Transport Act 2018, with the objective of introducing a franchise-based public transport system in the city. But not a single company that had approval could start their AC service within the six months' stipulated period. What is more, they did not even apply for bank loans to purchase buses, though they were assured of support for financing from transport association leaders, who are members of the Committee. Unsurprisingly, the authorities have been in a tight spot to run a scientific franchise-based bus system due to institutional overlap, resistance from powerful transport syndicates and failure to remove unauthorised vehicles from the roads.
The franchise system strictly requires standardised, roadworthy buses and designated stopping points. However, in the prevailing condition, it has to operate in the same space as thousands of dilapidated, unregulated, and unfit buses occupy. Commuters are deeply habituated to stopping buses anywhere by raising a hand. At the same time, unregulated buses aggressively undercut franchise schedules, picking up passengers outside designated stations and causing massive financial losses to the franchise operators. Traffic congestion in Dhaka, on the other hand, has slowed vehicle speeds down to just 7 km per hour. With such slow turnaround times, operating a bus service in the city has obviously become highly unprofitable that discourages new capital investment from the private sector. Under the current model, operators carry all operational risks while government support remains limited. Given these roadblocks, the way out is to replace unscientific bus routes with franchise-based system as was earlier conceived under the Bus Route Rationalisation (BRR) Initiative, relocate existing bus terminals and completely transition to a unified, single-operator franchise system.
