‘No impact on reducing bus fare in routes’
Staff Reporter :
Rights activists have expressed their disappointment over the government’s decision to reduce bus fares by a mere 3 paisa per kilometer, labeling it as negligible and ineffective for daily commuters.
The government announced this reduction following a decrease in kerosene and diesel prices on March 31, with the new fare rate of Tk 1.12 per kilometer, down from Tk 1.15, to be effective from Tuesday as per the circular issued by the Road Transport and Highways Division.
The fare adjustment, part of the monthly automatic fare adjustment mechanism, has been criticized for its minimal impact on overall travel costs.
For instance, the fare for a 242 km journey from Dhaka to Chattogram would now be reduced by only Tk 7.26, bringing the total from Tk 675 to a slightly lesser amount. Commuters like Selim Ahmed, who regularly travel such routes, find the reduction insignificant. “When I can pay Tk 675 as bus fare, then reducing less than Tk 10 means absolutely nothing to me,” he commented at a ticket counter in Dhaka.
Similar sentiments were echoed by travelers on the Dhaka to Barishal route, where the fare reduction amounts to just Tk 4.68 for a 156km trip. Passengers at Syebad and Jatrabari terminals in Dhaka remarked that a reduction of less than five Taka from the current fare of Tk 524 is virtually pointless.
The fare reduction is even less impactful for city bus services, with the longest route inside Dhaka from Pallabi to Bahadur Shah seeing a reduction of less than one Taka, leaving the fare at around Tk 41.
The Bangladesh Jatri Kalyan Samity, a passenger welfare platform, has outrightly termed the fare reduction a “mockery with the passengers.”
The fare adjustment decision came a day after the government lowered fuel prices by Tk 2.25 per liter, prompting a committee led by Bangladesh Road Transport Authority Chairman Nur Mohammad Mazumder to recommend fare reductions for intercity and long-route buses. However, minimum fares for bus and minibus services in the city will remain unchanged at Tk 10 and Tk 8, respectively.
This is not the first time the government has made such a marginal adjustment; a similar fare reduction of 3 paisa was implemented in August 2022, four weeks after a 22 percent fare increase. BRTA Chairman Nur Mohammad Mazumder assured that the new fare would be implemented as before, but Mozammel Hoque Chowdhury, Secretary General of Jatri Kalyan Samity, criticized the move, especially in light of recent overcharging by bus operators ahead of Eid.
He remarked, “This is nothing but a mockery with passengers. The decision is in no way implementable,” reflecting a sentiment that the reduction fails to address the real concerns of commuters, similar to the ineffective fare reduction in 2016.
