AC bus services heating up
Dhaka has five AC bus routes, charging the highest fares to provide cooling systems, but the services' increasingly hot and bothered commuters are feeling quite cheated
Bishawjit Das
The city's air-conditioned (AC) bus services are not providing proper cooling rides for its passengers. Dhaka city has five AC bus routes, charging the highest fares to provide cooling systems, but commuters are feeling quite cheated.Uttara-Motijheel, Savar-Motijheel, and EPZ-Motijheel are the routes within the city, and there are two other inter-district AC bus services on Narshindi-Gulistan, Narayanganj-Gulistan routes. 'Premium' provides two routes in the city, one is at Uttara and the other is at Savar. Nirapad only runs on the Uttara route. It is alleged that most of the AC buses at the Savar route do not have adequate cooling systems. "Getting a cool bus on a hot, humid day is quite rare on this route. Possibly the company has given all the broken down buses on this route," said Emon, a commuter and student of Jahangirnagar University. "Nirapad's buses do not have adequate AC. It is not only that they don't have good coolers, the drivers do not behave decently when they are asked to turn them on," said Imrul, a commuter from Uttara. The AC services charge the highest bus fares for the cool services, and it is some 50 per cent to 100 per cent higher than other non air conditioned services. The fare from Uttara to Shahbagh is Tk 20 where the other non AC services take Tk 10 or Tk. 12, and the public buses take Tk. 9. "That the fare is high is not a problem. The matter is we are being deceived," grudged Banker Moinul, a commuter. "They should provide the cool air for the extra money." "We follow the limited company rules for setting the fare. It is not the regular fare set by the government according to mileage," said the manager of Premium Bus Service. "This fare is authorised by BRTA." The first city AC bus service started in 1997 with the Premium Bus Service of Nitol Motors. It served the Uttara dwellers immensely because there was no direct bus to Uttara at that time. Premium also initiated the practice of passengers forming orderly queues for the buses. Premium has 32 buses running at Uttara route and 25 at the Savar route. Nirapad Userix will reach its fourth year in this september. It has 20 buses running at Uttara route. Answering of the allegation that the buses do not have adequate air conditioning, Hannan replied, "The buses at the Savar route are a bit old, and we are fixing them. We can not stop the total service for those buses." In reply of the same inquiry, Mr. Forkan, manager of Nirapad Bus Service said, "Our buses are from different countries, so the parts are not always available. Besides we fix whenever there is any complaint."
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