Welcome to Business Outlook
Related Articles
With the fuel price surge announced on Friday, bus fares for both city and long-distance routes see an increase ranging between 16 and 22 per cent, effective from today (Sunday).
The fare fixation committee of Bangladesh Road Transport Authority (BRTA) in consultation with the stakeholders revised the bus fares upwards on Saturday, and the hike was approved by Road Transport and Bridges Minister Obaidul Quader.
As per the new bus fare chart, for 52-seater buses plying long-distance routes, each passenger will be charged Tk 2.20 per km, for city bus Tk 2.50 per km and for buses running between Dhaka and its surrounding districts Tk 2.40 per km.
The committee also fixed the minimum fares for bus and mini-buses at Tk 10 and Tk 8 respectively.
The last time the fare was hiked was on November 7, 2021 when the fare was raised from Tk 1.42 to Tk 1.8 for inter-district and long-distance routes. The city bus fare was Tk 2.15 and mini-bus fare was Tk 2.05.
Announcing the newly revised fares, BRTA Chairman Nur Mohammad Majumder said the fares will be effective from Sunday and that a mobile court drive will be launched simultaneously to make sure there are no irregularities regarding the fares.
Road transport and highways division secretary Aminullah Nuri also said that the hike was finalised in consultation with all stakeholders in the transport sector.
The 11-member fare fixation committee of the BRTA started negotiations with BRTA’s proposal for an increase of 16.7 per cent in long-distance bus fare.
However, transport owners demanded a hike of around 60 per cent, arguing that prices of various components have increased by 70 per cent.
The cost of new bus purchase, bank interest, registration, fuel cost, operational cost, road tax and renovation cost have increased significantly, they said.
The launch owners, however, demanded that the increase of fares be in line with the fuel price hike.
Representatives of the Consumer Association of Bangladesh, Bangladesh Petroleum Corporation and BRTA and transport owners are among the members of the committee.
(FE)
