Special Correspondent :
A state-owned transport company, the Bangladesh Road Transport Corporation (BRTC), is going to procure 1,000 new buses for plying across the country, including 340 CNG-run air-conditioned (AC) buses.
These buses will be imported from South Korea under a soft loan of EXIM Bank.
A Tk 1,133.46 crore project, the BRTC will procure the 340 CNG-run AC buses with a soft loan at 0.1 percent interest rate from the South Korea’s EXIM bank. Of the buses, 140 will be used for city services for Dhaka city while the rest for intercity services.
While talking to this correspondent at his office recently, Bangladesh Road Transport Corporation Tajul Islam, also an additional secretary to the government, said that within July this year, the buses will be imported.
In this regard, they have already started the tendering process.
Col Mobarak Hossain Majumder, a director of the BRTC, has already been assigned as the project director of the project to procure the luxury buses from the South Korea.
The process of appointing consultant for the 18-month project is on and it would be completed within March this year, he informed.
Tajul Islam claimed that the international tender to procure the luxury buses would be floated within this February, so that the buses can be imported within the stipulated period.
The project might be extended till December 31 this year to complete the procedures.
The chairman said BRTC has been planning to expand its service in Dhaka, Chattogram and different inter-district routes by procuring around 1,000 buses.
A project to buy 340 CNG-run AC buses has already passed, while three more projects for buying 600 more buses are pending approval.
Regarding the condition of Korean soft loan, the BRTC chairman said that the soft loan has been given with the interest of 0.1 percent. The South Korean EXIM Bank is giving the loan for repaying by 25 years with an additional 15.5 years grace period.
He stated that BRTC is now operational in 208 local and five international routes between Bangladesh and India. Currently, we are carrying feasibility studies to operate buses on three more international routes.
The state-run transport agency is going to take two separate projects to prepare 1.75 lakh drivers.
“Our main target is to turn the BRTA into a modern, profitable and smart organization,” he added.
Tajul said BRTC was incurring losses till 2019-20, but the management led by him made the corporation a profitable one after taking charge in February 2021. BRTC made Tk 84.35 crore profit in the last three fiscal years.
The corporation had dues (salary and other benefits for workers and employees) of Tk 101 crore till 2021, but has now already paid Tk 77 crore over the last three years.
