Eighty new buses will hit the city roads on Thursday amid an acute crisis for transport and a chaotic situation in transport sector since price of compressed natural gas was raised on May 13.
Bangladesh Road Transport Corporation (BRTC) imported the buses from South Korea while 85 more will arrive in June and 90 in August. The government plans to import 950 different types of buses from different countries by end of this year, said communications ministry officials.
These Korean buses costing Tk 70 lakh each excluding import tax are better than those from China which cost Tk 33 lakh. South Korean company Daewoo will assemble those, they added.
Communications Minister Syed Abul Hossain hoped that the increasing demand for transport in the city would greatly be eased after the new additions.
He said many of these buses would ply between the capital and various districts.
The government is also going to import a large number of Indian buses with loan from India. Among those are 300 double-deckers, 100 single-deckers and 50 articulated buses, popularly known as bendy bus, the officials said.