Settle Suprobhat's route permit plea within 30 days: HC

The High Court yesterday directed the chairman of Bangladesh Road Transport Authority (BRTA) to dispose of Suprobhat Paribahan's bid to restore its route permit within 30 days.

The bench of Justice Moyeenul Islam Chowdhury and Justice Md Ashraful Kamal passed the order following a writ petition filed by the bus company, challenging legality of BRTA's inaction to settle its application to restore permission for operating its 163 buses.

On March 19, a bus of the company ran over Abrar Chowdhury. The fatality, which pointed out yet again the unruliness in transport sector, drew widespread protests.

BRTA scrapped route permit for 163 buses of the company on March 20 saying they had no legal documents. Suprobhat placed an application before BRTA on April 1 seeking to restore its route permit, which they alleged was not heeded by BRTA.

On April 8, the company served a legal notice on BRTA in this regard, but BRTA did not respond. Suprobhat MD Ashraf Ali filed the petition on April 15.