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Bus firms seek merger exit out of traffic jams
Mounting losses worry Bangladesh companies
- by Anisur Rahman, Correspondent
- Published: 00:00 November 28, 2009
Dhaka : Bus operators in the Bangladesh capital have sought merger under a single company as Dhaka's notorious traffic jams expose them to mounting losses while studies show the traffic is at a standstill for an average of 7.5 hours daily, reports said here yesterday.
"Being tired of losing trips and profits in traffic jams, the city's majority bus owners have agreed to run their vehicles under a single company and requested the government to help them merge through a guideline," Financial Express reported.
It said the bus operators claimed they lose three to four trips per day against the required minimum of 10 trips to be profitable.
The report came months after police suggested franchising of bus routes to introduce a modern public transport system saying unhealthy competition among the city's 150 bus companies was one of the reasons for the traffic congestion.
The companies run more than 6,000 buses, many of them in dilapidated condition of which more than 1,200 people have ownership.
The Express report said although the bus owners blamed private cars and rickshaws for aggravating traffic jams, they felt the need to run business unitedly to stop overtaking and competition among themselves to bring discipline on the streets.
The bus owners' proposal came up as they shared views with the Dhaka Transport Coordination Board (DTCB) earlier this month and sought the government's cooperation for the merger of the companies.
DTCB officials said during the meeting the bus operators were interested to form big companies as they were also the sufferers of traffic jams.
The government recently opted for metro rail system and elevated expressway after a series of abortive steps to put the city traffic in order.
According to a recent Roads & Highways report the traffic jams halt traffic in Bangladesh capital for 7.5 hours everyday causing economic losses only in terms of fuel cost worth 100 billion takas (Dh5.33 billion) annually, an amount which is one-third of the country's annual development expenditure.
"Our study found the economic losses only in terms of fuel cost amounted to 100 billion takas annually due to the traffic jams in Dhaka," R&H engineer Shantosh Kumar Roy, who carried out the study, told Gulf News.
Residents of Dhaka complained that the tailbacks were becoming bigger everyday while a government order resetting the office timing, splitting office hours under different categories earlier this week yielded little result.
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