For yet another occasion, the government has succumbed to pressure coming from, what appears to be the case, all-powerful owners of private passenger bus services in Dhaka city. The Bangladesh Road Transport Authority (BRTA) suspended Wednesday last its drive for a 'fortnight'---the serious doubts remain whether it would at all be resumed anytime soon or not--- against the illegal 'seating' bus service that had been in operation for more than two decades. The BRTA was left with no option other than putting on hold its action against the 'seating' service following untold sufferings of the thousands of commuters. The sufferings were thrust upon them by bus owners as the latter had decided to keep a large number of buses off the roads protesting the BRTA drive. Many buses did charge their passengers the fares of 'seating' service, even they did allegedly operate as 'local ones' during the period of the 'short-lived' operation.
Now that the service is back, the passengers' sufferings, in terms of availability of buses, is over, to a great extent. But they are being forced to pay fares at rates higher than before for availing the so-called 'seating' service. The bus owners have become more defiant because of the government's latest 'retreat'. The BRTA is reportedly engaged now in its efforts to devise means for providing a legal coverage to the 'seating' service. Some people do suspect that the recent drive was an 'agreed ploy' of both BRTA and bus owners to make the 'seating' service legal, capitalizing on the passengers' sufferings.
There is no denying that the country's road transport sector is gripped by a sort of anarchy. The situation has never been perfect. But in the recent times, it has turned worse. The popular perception is that involvement of politics and a few powerful political elements is largely responsible for the current deplorable situation in the road transport sector. Probably, they are not wrong. Never before the road transport owners and workers were so defiant; the transport workers give a damn to traffic laws and rules and they feel little remorse for taking lives on roads and highways by their rash driving. On an average, road accidents claim 15 to 20 lives per day and the people have become habituated to taking such tragic incidents as normal happenings these days.
But things have now gone, as the developments suggest, too far and it is in need of an immediate correction. However, this is a Herculean task. The daily turnover of road transport sector is worth several billions of takas. The financial benefits accrued from it go to people beyond the sector and, thus, the vested interests are widespread. Under the present socio-political context, streamlining the road transport sector thus presents a daunting challenge indeed. One way of addressing this challenge could be the breaking the dominance of private bus owners by putting in place strong alternatives. The proposed metro rail in Dhaka city will be one such alternative. The government should also strengthen the state bus service in the capital city without succumbing to any unwholesome counter-pressure from the private bus owners. Comfortable and efficient inter-district train services might prove to be other effective alternatives. The government should work seriously in its task of breaking the dominance of an unruly band of road transport owners.
