DCC gets back WB fund for bus-terminal development
City Correspondent
The World Bank (WB) finally agreed to give a fund of Tk 52 crore back to the Dhaka City Corporation (DCC) for development of three inter-district bus terminals in the city, but with a condition for privatisation.In a letter to the Dhaka Transport Coordination Board (DTCB), the WB said the maintenance and operation of Mohakhali, Syedabad and Gabtoli bus terminals must be handed to private firms, said sources in the DTCB. The Roads and Highways Department (RHD) will implement the plan. The WB also said in the letter signed by its senior transport economist, Navid Qureshi, that Bangladesh-China joint company AML-JPCC employed by the RHD must start the development work in September with a June 30, 2004 deadline for completion. The WB withdrew the fund of Tk 52 crore in February this year three years after awarding it, following a failure of the DCC to allocate the money to any private firm for the development of the three bus terminals, now riddled with problems. After repeated requests by the DTCB and DCC, the WB has this June repeated the condition of privatising the maintenance and operation of the terminals and set a new condition that the process of privatisation must be complete by August 31 this year. On August 11, the DCC gave Mohakhali and Syedabad terminals to Rora Enterprise for maintenance and operation at Tk 47 lakh and Tk 1.48 crore and the Gabtoli terminal to Diba Enterprise at Tk 1.36 core. But the privatisation hit a snag when Communications Minister Nazmul Huda asked the DCC to stop toll collection at bus terminals and banned parking fees collected by the DCC. The DCC feared that private firms would not come forward to take charge of the terminals if parking fees were stopped. A meeting held at the Prime Minister's Office on August 24 resolved the disagreement between the communications ministry and the DCC. Now the private operators can charge the buses fees for parking at the terminals. "The privatisation of the bus terminals is heading towards an amicable settlement," said DTCB Executive Director Quamrul Islam Siddiqui. "Both Rora and Diba enterprises have also been providing security to the organisations and individuals for long. We want to ensure safety of the passengers at the terminals. I hope these two companies will be able to smoothly maintain the bus terminals," said DCC Chief Engineer Dr Golam Quadeer. "We are going to form a cell soon, headed by Mayor Sadeque Hossain Khoka to monitor the activities of the private operators," said the chief engineer.
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