Bangladesh: Bus owners withdraw strike as BRTA accepts fare hike proposal

Bus owners on Sunday evening withdrew their countrywide strike after the authorities had accepted their proposal to increase the fares of buses.

The indefinite strike of the goods laden vehicle owners and workers, however, is continuing.

Bangladesh Road Transport Authority, at a meeting with leaders of bus owners at BRTA office at capital’s Banani on Sunday, gave a proposal to increase the rate of fare for a kilometre for the diesel-powered buses and minibuses running on the inter-district and long routes from Tk 1.42 to Tk 1.8o per kilometre. The fare on the routes will be hiked by 27 per cent.

The fare of buses running in Dhaka and Chattogram metropolitan cities is going to be increased from Tk 1.70 to Tk 2.15 per kilometre and the minimum fare was increased from Tk 7 to Tk 10 for buses.

The fare of minibuses running in Dhaka and Chattogram metropolitan cities is going to be increased from Tk 1.60 to Tk 2.05 per kilometre and the minimum fare is going to be increased from Tk 5 to Tk 8 for minibuses.

The BRTA chairman Mur Mohammad Mazumder announced the new fares.

‘We will send the proposals to the road transport and bridges ministry and the ministry will issue a circular in this regard tomorrow,’ he said.

The new fare will be in effect after publication of the circular from the ministry, he added.

Bangladesh road Transport owners association secretary general Khandakar Enayet Ullah urged all owners of the buses to withdrew the strike and take initiatives to move their buses on their scheduled routes immediately.

He said that the previous fare would be effective until publication of the circular.

New Age