BANGLADESH Road Transport Corporation has initiated an investigation into the purchase of faulty buses and trucks. It’s an appreciating move though it is widely believed that formation of probe body is an eyewash and will bring no fruit. With Indian credit line, the Bangladesh government had bought 600 buses and 500 trucks in phases from different Indian manufacturers in exchange of Tk 559 crore last year. What’s painful is that most of the vehicles’ condition is faulty and poor. After the buses were arrived, it was reported in different media that some of the non-AC buses had leaky roofs and several double-decker ones were not what their specimen sheets mentioned. On September 16, Roads and Highway Minister said that there must be an investigation to identify the persons involved in purchasing the defect buses.
The Road Transport and Highways Division (RTHD) directed the BRTC Chairman to form the probe committee with representatives from different bodies last October. But the dilly-dally attitudes of the authorities failed to initiate the probe. The vehicles included 300 double-decker buses (Tk 90 lakh each), 100 non-AC buses (Tk 49 lakh each), 100 AC city buses (Tk 67 lakh each), 100 AC intercity buses (Tk 72 lakh each), 350 (16.2-ton) trucks (Tk 20 lakh each) and 150 (10.2-ton) trucks (Tk 21 lakh each). Ashok Leyland supplied the double-decker buses, AC city buses, AC intercity buses while Tata Motors supplied the non-AC buses and 10.2-ton trucks. VE Commercial Vehicle supplied the 16.2-ton trucks. Everybody knows corruption is an old disease in BRTC. Each and every department of the State-owned organization is riddled with corruption. The depots of BRTC are the glowing examples of mismanagement and misuse of public money where selling vehicles’ parts in the black market is a lucrative business.
Since independence, all the subsequent governments have invested millions of taka to make the BRTC a profitable concern. But it becomes a safe haven for corrupts.
