Mayor of the city Sadeque Hossain Khoka had said earlier that the DCC had no immediate plans to build any new passenger shed as it causes 'extra hassle'.

Millions of commuters rely on public transport, but the few passenger sheds available for them are either installed on the wrong location or most of those are always occupied by shopkeepers, vendors, drug addicts and in some cases, by floating sex workers.

In 2005, DCC demolished nearly 40 such old sheds and currently, there are only around 100 passenger sheds and 163 km of sidewalks against a total road network of 2,289.69 km in the city.

The existing sheds have a little or no use for the commuters since commuter convenience was not taken into consideration while designing those.

Business hubs like Firmgate, Motijheel, Purana Paltan, Gulistan, Phulbaria, Mohakhali, Banani, Malibagh, Mouchak, Rampura, Gulshan, Mirpur, Shahbagh and Moghbazar desperately need more passenger sheds where thousands of commuters suffer everyday.

"We see commuter sufferings on the streets. [That's why] we have decided to build around 200 passenger sheds. Hopefully the construction will begin this year," said MR Chowdhury, chief conservancy officer of DCC.

"We selected a few models [of proposed sheds]. These sheds will have modern features such as restrooms and drinking water facilities," he added.

At Kakoli bus stop, following one of the proposed designs and with the help of Dhaka Bank, DCC installed a new passenger shed with a restroom. "We will go along with this design if all parties concerned approve it," said Chowdhury.

The new passenger shed installed at Kakoli is not open to public yet as it awaits formal inauguration.

Syed Qudratullah, superintendent engineer at Traffic Engineering Division of DCC, said, "A study titled Route Rationalisation to locate [suitable] spots for passenger sheds in accordance with bus stops is at its final stage."

DCC has decided to allow different corporate firms to construct the passenger sheds at different points of the city and the firms themselves will be responsible to maintain the sheds as well, he said adding, "Beautification of medians by corporate firms is working pretty well. We will follow the same method."

"The corporate houses will build the sheds according to our design and they will take care of the sheds. In return, they will post advertisements of their businesses on the sheds. They will also pay us fees," explained Qudratullah.

Over a 100 corporate firms showed interest in the passenger shed construction project. DCC's Space Allocation Committee for Advertisement will select eligible firms for the project.

A few of the eligible firms including Standard Chartered Bank, Grameen Phone and Dhaka Bank already constructed several passenger sheds (without restrooms) using stainless steel pipes at Gulshan, Mohakhali, Kakoli, Kalabagan and Dhanmondi with approval from the DCC.

Removable materials such as stainless steel pipes will also be used in the new sheds with restrooms so that the sheds can be dismantled easily whenever the DCC needs to widen roads or sidewalks, Qudratullah explained.