Editorial
BRTC service
Big room for improvement
Often one gets to see buses of the Bangladesh Road Transport Corporation (BRTC) plying the city roads that are in poor running condition. The worn-out vehicles come nowhere near the standard in terms of comfort that is expected of a public sector operated service. Also, let us not forget that old and faulty vehicles, whether they belong to state or private sector, tend equally to slow down the traffic. Significantly, however, the state-run BRTC is one of the few organisations that has recovered from a long losing streak and its operational plan of leasing out a part of its fleet of buses to private operators has been successful. The organisation has refloated itself like that. But it has clearly not been able to fulfil the conditions that would make it a worthy competitor in a field with many private transport operators. The latter have introduced luxury buses which offer much better services in every respect. So the BRTC has to improve its services to stay in business and better serve the public as well. The organisation must break the stagnancy that characterises most of the state-run enterprises in the country. The appalling disregard shown for passenger comfort cause, as evidenced in the picture of a BRTC bus carried in this newspaper yesterday, is but an example of poor maintenance which could only be the result of poor management. The BRTC is yet to live up to popular expectations. It has to maintain the standard expected of a state-run transport agency in a modernising capital city. Furthermore, it is the biggest commuter service provider in the city and, consequently, a huge number of people depend on it. So it has to cater to commuters' needs efficiently. The BRTC planners and decisionmakers should be fully seized of the reality that it is facing stiff competition and that as a state-run enterprise it shoulders the responsibility of providing better services at an affordable price to the citizens.
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