Bangladesh Road Transport Authority (BRTA) recently informed the communications ministry about its decision.

As per the decision, the four-stroke CNG-run autorickshaws will charge Tk 10 instead of the present Tk 12 a kilometre. For the next every kilometre the fares will be Tk 4 instead of Tk 5, sources said.

The government was supposed to scale down the autorickshaw fares as per an agreement with the associations of owners and employees of auto-tempo, auto-rickshaw and auto-truck on April 16.

But the decision was stalled in view of an appeal by the associations citing insufficient number of filling stations. The communications ministry extended the deadline till July 15 and the fares were supposed to go down from the next day.

The BRTA was given the responsibility to monitor the whole process. On October 29, it finally communicated in writing about its decision to the ministry to reduce the fares. The BRTA, however, proposed to stick to the current rate till February next, sources said.

The day after the BRTA letter was sent to the ministry, the associations again urged the communications minister to defer the fares cut till Eid on 'humanitarian grounds'. In their plea, they cited shortage of filling stations, rising cost of auto-rickshaw and its spare parts, tax increase and spiral of prices of essentials during Ramadan.

Sources said the ministry would not heed to any further appeal and has decided to reduce the fares after Eid as sufficient numbers of CNG filling stations have been set up.

To popularise the use of CNG, the government has allowed tax-free import of machinery and equipment and leased out land for filling stations, they said.

There are 20 refuelling stations now and 25 more are going to be set up by December. Most of the fuelling stations operate at least 16 hours daily, they pointed out.

Official sources said the government has so far granted permission to set up 1,928 CNG stations and 911 conversion workshops across the country. The CNG vehicles rose to over 16,000 till September 2003 against 1,624 in October 2001.

Before introducing the CNG, the government banned movement of about 35,000 old two-stroke auto-rickshaws, mainly responsible for alarming air pollution in the metropolis.