Diesel price is five times the cost of CNG (compressed natural gas) but commuters using CNG-run buses are compelled to pay the same amount of fare.

Passengers said they are the victims of continued irregularities in the CNG sector as the government has failed to bring discipline in the fare structure.

Diesel now costs Tk 40 per litre while each cubic foot of CNG sells at Tk 8.50.

According to sources at CNG conversion firms, one cubic foot gas is equivalent to one litre of diesel, as a bus can travel the same distance with this amount of energy.

"The fare of CNG-run buses should be 5 times lower than that of diesel buses," said Mahbub Alam, a marketing official from Rahimafrooz CNG Ltd.

Moreover, majority of these buses do not have any signs identifying them as CNG buses, leaving no ground open for the passengers to raise questions for the high fares.

Even some bus services charge fares that are higher than those of diesel-run buses. They use fancy tags such as 'counter service' or 'sitting service' to justify the high fare.

Several buses, namely the Myline and Borak operating on routes 53 and 57 charge Tk 10 for a trip from Azimpur to Mirpur while diesel-run minibuses charge the same.

The situation is even worse for Midway bus services that charge Tk 10 for a trip from Azimpur to Mohammadpur --a journey of around 8 kilometres. This fare is equal to that of big diesel-run buses, while smaller buses charge around Tk 5/6.

Mohammad Hanif of Myline bus services said they try to follow a uniform fare structure as there is no specific fare chart for CNG-run buses.

"We are aware that charging similar amount of fare seems unjustifiable, and that a number of bus owners are making huge profits by claiming high fares," he said.

If the difference of fare between the gas and diesel run buses was big, all the passengers would try to take the CNG-run buses leading to a chaotic situation, Hanif said.

A number of CNG and diesel-run buses, operating from Azimpur to Badda and Natun Bazar, claim similar fare, regular passengers said.

Anik, a CNG-run bus service claims Tk 5 and Tk 8 for a trip from Azimpur to Farmgate and Nabisco respectively, while Winner, a diesel bus service, claims the same fare.

Many CNG and diesel bus services operating from Motijheel and Gulistan to Mirpur, Mohammadpur and other parts of the city have identical fare structures. These include City Bus, Hanif, Duldul, Rajdhani, Shatabdi, Greenway and Kalmilata.

According to Shakhawat Hossain, an operator of Duldul bus service, the current situation can only be improved if all the buses are turned into CNG-run vehicles.

"Declaring different fare structures for different kind of buses would be complicated and problematic," said Hossain. "The best solution to this problem is to completely ban diesel run buses as they are really antiquated and much more costly to maintain.

"

Abu Bakar Mohammad Shajahan, chairman of Bangladesh Road Transport Authority (BRTA), said they had not thought about the situation earlier.

"As we are now receiving complaints, we are chalking out plans to ease the situation. We might send a proposal to the ministry about new fare structures soon," he said.