CNG-run bus owners demand rise in fare
Compressed Natural Gas (CNG) run bus owners yesterday issued a three-day ultimatum to the government to increase CNG-bus fares by 45 percent and threatened to go for tougher action if their demands are not met.
Despite the ultimatum however, some CNG-run bus owners are already charging passengers higher fares on different routes.
Leaders of the Association of Bus Companies (ABC), an organisation of CNG-run bus owners, and Bangladesh Road Transport Authority (BRTA) officials held a meeting in this regard at the BRTA headquarters yesterday afternoon in which ABC leaders proposed an increase in bus fares in proportion to the increase in price of spare parts and expenditure borne by the bus.
They submitted a list of increased prices of different spare parts and demanded that the government formulate a regulation for the price of these.
BRTA officials said they would consider the ABC demands after verifying the list.
Earlier ABC at a meeting at their Shantinagar office yesterday issued the ultimatum to the government to increase bus fares from Tk 0.87 per km to Tk 1.26 per km.
The government increased the CNG price from Tk 8:50 to Tk 16.75 per cubic metre on April 24. Two days later, it adjusted the fares of the CNG-run three-wheelers and taxicabs, but instructed the CNG-run buses not to increase their fares.
The mobile court of BRTA in a special drive over the last two days has meanwhile seized 17 buses, filed 236 cases, imposed fines of a total Tk 26,000 and arrested four bus-staff for demanding higher fares and other irregularities in violation of government directives.
The ABC has also urged the bus owners not to charge the extra fares until a new directive comes from the government.
ABC President Khandakar Rafiqul Hossain Kazol told The Daily Star, “Earlier, there was no fixed government rate for CNG-run bus fares. Our main demand is to raise fares in adjustment with price hike of gas as well as spare parts of buses.”
Mohammad Abdur Rouf, director (enforcement) of BRTA, told The Daily Star yesterday, “Our magistrates will continue their vigilance on fare hike and other irregularities in buses in the city.”
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