Operators take advantage of no fare chart

The asking price came as a blow to him when he went to a private bus company's counter to buy an AC bus ticket ahead of the Eid holidays.

Tonmoy Ahmed, a college student studying in the capital, was standing in front of the counter of Royal Paribahan at Gabtoli bus terminal on September 4 to buy an advance ticket for his village home in Magura.

“I was stunned when they asked Tk 1,500 for a ticket of an AC bus from Dhaka to Magura. I usually travel on AC buses of this company on the same route at around Tk 700,” he said.

Like him, almost all the passengers had to pay high prices for travelling on AC buses because there is no government-set fare chart for such buses.

The state-run Bangladesh Road Transport Authority (BRTA) has a fare chart for non-AC buses of both metropolis and inter-district routes. But the authorities have yet to formulate any such fare charts for AC buses.

Private bus operators usually charge additional fares despite having a government-set fare chart for non-AC buses.

The passengers who travel on AC buses face even more hassles since there is not fare chart. Cashing in on the opportunity, private bus operators charge excessive fare as per their wish describing their buses as “luxurious”.

“I usually travel from Dhaka to Satkhira on AC buses of Eagle Paribahan at Tk 1,100. But now they are charging Tk 1,800 for the same route ahead of eid,” said Mohammad Maksud, a private banker.

“Finding no other alternatives, I had to buy a ticket of September 11 of this company paying such abnormally high price,” he told The Daily Star.

Apart from some reputed bus companies, most of the operators charge additional fares taking the chance of huge demand for tickets ahead of eid, said Bangladesh Passengers' Welfare Association Secretary General Mozammel Hoque Chowdhury.

The government monitoring is very crucial to prevent the hassle of the passengers, he noted.

Talking to The Daily Star, BRTA Chairman Nazrul Islam said they are working to formulate a draft fare chart for AC buses in the metropolis areas. After finalising the draft, it would be sent to the road transport and bridges ministry for final approval.

However, BRTA Director Nurul Islam said it is not viable to fix a fare chart for intercity buses because the fare of long-route AC buses is set on the basis of services.

As per the existing rules, the better services are, the higher the fares will be, said Nurul Islam.

Luxurious services cannot be provided to the passengers if the government set fare chart for AC buses, said Khandaker Enayet Ullah, secretary general of Bangladesh Road Transport Owners Association.

There are different sorts of AC buses. Some owners buy AC buses worth Tk 1 crore each, while others buy a bust at Tk 1.5 crore to Tk 2 crore, he added.

So, how can the fare of both categories of these buses be the same, he asked. The more luxurious the buses are, the more comfortable the journey will be. So, the fare of luxurious buses will be higher than that of others, he observed.

There are around 1 lakh buses plying across the country. Of them, around 7,000 are AC buses, according to transport operators.