Passengers demand enhancing the number of vehicles under the Dhaka Nagar Paribahan. The Dhaka Nagar Paribahan bus service started from December 26 last year with 50 buses.
The routes were initially from Ghatarchar of Keraniganj to Kanchpur. However, three more routes have been finalized in the second phase from Ghatarchar of Keraniganj via Farmgate to Vulta of Narayanganj, from Ghatarchar via Basila-Mohammadpur and Science Lab to Meghna Ghat in Kanchpur and another from Ghatarchar via Kakrail to Narayanganj.
Passengers who use the buses daily believe that if the number of buses increase, the waiting time will go down by about 10-15 minutes. Passengers are looking to reduce the waiting time for many reasons including the conditions of the waiting space provided.
In many of the stops, there is only an old broken passenger canopy. There are no passenger booths in many of the stops. Sellers at the counter are selling tickets under green umbrellas of the city transport titles.
However, the condition of the passenger booths around the counter are in dire conditions in many of the stops. Some have no seats and some are accompanied with garbage. Shaon Ahmed, a regular passenger told this correspondent that the service is still good since the launch but there are less passengers due to the availability of other buses.
“However, this bus has its benefits. It does not race with other buses and the driving is not rash. There is no unruly negotiation regarding the fare. If some new buses are launched on this route, the interest of the passengers will increase further,” he said.
Sakib Ahsan, a student, said that he enjoys the systematic comfort.
“There is no war of words between the driver and the passengers of this bus,” he told the correspondent.
Another passenger named Md Kashem said that passengers do not walk around; they go to the counter in a line, take their tickets and get on the bus. The service is better than others.
“We can get on and off the bus safely because the buses drive responsibly while in picking up and dropping passengers. However, some more counters in some important places would make the system better,” he said.
One of the BRTC bus drivers under Nagar Paribahan said that drivers and helpers in some other private service providers get Tk 500 for food besides their regular salary.
“At the end of the month, we only get our salary which is not enough for us. There is no helper in this bus either. It would have been helpful to have one,” he said.
Nilima Akhter, executive director of the Dhaka Transport Coordinating Authority (DTCA) and member secretary of the Bus Route Rationalization Committee told Bangladesh Post, "Through the app, we can see for ourselves how many tickets have been sold. You can also see how many tickets are sold at a counter.
BRTC has its own pay structure. BRTC drivers have ‘A’, ‘B’ and ‘C’ grades. The driver who has been working for five years has a designated salary. One who has been working for about 10 years has a different salary, she added.
She added that eventually the system will look to expand however, increase in routes or buses cannot be confirmed yet.