Transport owners reject BRTA’s proposal of 28% fare hike, demand 41% instead
Meeting underway, final decision yet to be announced
Transport owners and leaders have proposed to increase fares of all public transports by over 40%.
A meeting is underway today at the Bangladesh Road Transport Authority (BRTA) office in Dhaka to fix the fares of all public transports following the recent fuel price hike.
Currently, intercity passengers are being charged at a rate of Tk1.42 per kilometre.
BRTA, in a bid to readjust the fares in line with the diesel and kerosene price hike, proposed a price hike of 40 paisa/km, said meeting sources to The Business Standard.
However, representatives of the county's transport sector demanded a 58 paisa//km increase for the long-haul buses – a 40.85% increase from the current rate.
BRTA Chairman Nur Mohammad Mazumder is presiding over the meeting where Khandakar Enayetullah, secretary general, Bangladesh Public Transport Owners' Association; Ramesh Chandra Ghosh, chairman of Bangladesh Bus-Truck Owners' Association; Ghulam Rahman, chairman of Consumers' Association Bangladesh; Shukdeb Dhali, director (operations) of BTRC are present among others.
The government hiked diesel and kerosene prices by Tk15 to Tk80 per litre on Wednesday, citing a volatile global market for crude oil. In response, transport owners and workers called an indefinite nationwide strike, demanding either a rise in fares or a reversal of the hike.
Commuters had a harrowing time for past two days. In Dhaka, most modes of public transports including buses, both intra and inter-city, stayed off the roads adding to the miniseries of the general people.
