Merger of city transport cos

A MOVE to secure merger of private bus and minibus companies operating in Dhaka city to improve quality of their service and bring discipline in the city streets appear quite sensible as promoted by Dhaka Transport Coordination Authority (DTCA) as news report in an English daily said. It is a quite good move to modernize the city traffic system and we must say that the authorities concern should implement it whatever difficulties they may face from vested interest quarters which are currently controlling city traffic system under political cover and minting unaccounted wealth with least bother to traffic rules and environmental protection.
As we know Dhaka has earned the bad name for plying old dilapidated buses and minibuses by private firms and individuals who bother least about commuters safety and comforts. Their poorly trained drivers are used to reckless driving with least bothering about passengers’ safety risking people’s life in city streets almost on daily basis.
The disclosure that the new move is at work now to merge all bus and minibus companies operating on Mohammadpur-Motijheel route into a single company as a pilot project, deserves appreciation. We believe that the authorities’ plan to split the entire city into 10 bus service zones on the basis of routes depending on the success of the pilot project may bring far reaching change in the city commuter system.
As per the news report at present 103 bus companies are operating about four thousand buses and over three thousand minibuses in 160 routes in the city. The new project if it could be properly implemented to merge all those companies and individual owners into a dozen big companies will definitely bring discipline in city streets and also allow replacement of old dilapidated buses by encouraging new investment to buy comfortable buses to improve the quality of their city services. The plan to streamline the capital’s chaotic commuter service will not only reduce reckless driving by competing drivers of different bus companies to take more passengers from roadside, it will also allow the authorities to demand strict compliance of traffic discipline in city streets under a common operating standard. Passengers would also be saved from indiscriminate rise of fares while the government revenue may rise manifold from organized system of accounting.
It is no doubt a timely move with donors support but the question is whether or not powerful quarters will allow to bring change in the system. Because corporate merger of companies may make monopoly of individual owners more difficult.
Whether merger of bus companies takes place or not, such a move will not necessarily improve the quality of bus service or traffic clogging of the roads in the capital city. The immediate consideration has to be how to make Dhaka city moving. Those who tell the government of unstoppable development are sycophants seeking gains illegally. If anybody looks at Dhaka he will only see mess and mismanagement.