Staff Reporter :The government has increased the bus and auto-rickshaw fares in Dhaka and Chittagong. The new bus fare will be effective from October 1.Road Transport and Bridges Minister Obaidul Quader disclosed it while talking to newsmen at his office on Thursday.The revised auto-rickshaw fare will be effective from Nov 1. Officials said, the auto-rickshaw drivers will have to pay their owners Tk 900 per day as deposit at present it is Tk 600.The bus fare has been raised to Tk 1.70 per kilometre from Tk 1.60 while for minibuses it is increased to Tk 1.60 from the existing Tk 1.50.But the minimum fares have been kept at Tk 7 and Tk 5 for buses and minibuses respectively in the two metropolis.The fare for the first two kilometres has been increased from Tk 25 to Tk 40, while Tk 12 will be charged for the next kilometres, which was previously Tk 7.64. Moreover, Tk 2 will be charged in lieu of Tk 1.04 for midway intermissions. General Secretary of Bangladesh Road Transport Owners’ Union Khondokar Enayet Ullah Khan yesterday said that the new fare rate of CNG-run buses has been set after discussing with the government. Although the fare of CNG-run vehicles has not been increased, the passengers apprehend new rate as gas price has been increased. Not only that, the commuters of capital Dhaka have long been complaining that they are charged arbitrarily by the auto-rickshaw drivers on the streets in absence of a monitoring system. Usually, most of the auto-rickshaw drivers charge almost three-time higher than the normal fare when traffic is at its peak on the city streets. Now, the passengers will have to face hard situation on the street for increasing fare. “We will charge passengers extra fare in line with the latest gas price hike,” Faruk Mohammad, driver of a CNG-run auto-rickshaw, said yesterday. Dhaka Metropolitan CNG-run Auto-rickshaw Malik Samity Oikya Parishad President Barkat Ullah Bhulu said the extra fare would be set after discussing with the owners and other authorities concerned.Meanwhile, the passengers have categorically blamed the BRTA for failing to install digital meters in the CNG-run auto-rickshaws while the drivers do not show any interest in carrying passengers as per meter reading. In the BRTA fare chart updated in 2011, Tk25 was fixed for the first two kilometres on CNG-run auto-rickshaws, Tk 7 for each subsequent kilometre and Tk1.25 per minute for stand-by. But it was never followed by the drivers. In January 2013, the fares were fixed Tk1.55 per kilometre was prescribed for inter-city buses while Tk1.45 for non-AC buses. Besides, the government also fixed Tk 7 for seating service buses and Tk5 for local service buses as minimum fare.But there were widespread allegations that the passengers were charged Tk10 as the minimum fare even when they travel a short distance. Now, it would increase more in the name of CNG price hike, the passengers apprehended.”We are monitoring the situation. If the drivers charge more than the fare prescribed officially, the commuters can seek help from the traffic police officials working in that area,” Md Moslem Uddin, Joint Commissioner (traffic), Dhaka Metropolitan Police, said yesterday.
