The two city corporations of Dhaka and Bangladesh Road Transport Authority are going to conduct a joint drive against buses running without route permits in Dhaka city between July 1 and August 31.

The decision was taken at the 17th meeting of the Bus Route Rationalisation Coordination Committee at the Dhaka South City Corporation Nagar Bhaban, said a press release issued by the DSCC.

At the meeting, Dhaka North City Corporation mayor Atiqul Islam said that currently in Dhaka city 1,646 buses were running with route permits which caused huge traffic congestions in the capital.

‘These buses will not be allowed to run,’ he said, adding, ‘The two city corporations of Dhaka and BRTA will conduct a drive against these buses between July 1 and August 31.’

During the meeting, DSCC mayor Sheikh Fazle Noor Taposh said that a pilot project to run all buses on the Kanchpur Bridge-Motijheel-Ghatarchar route in the capital under one company would begin on September 8 this year.

Earlier, the pilot project was scheduled to be taken off in April. He said that they could not introduce the project in April this year due to the coronavirus situation.

‘We will start taking steps to construct a bus depot in Ghatarchar area to implement the pilot project,’ he said and added that tender works had been concluded to build bus bays and passenger sheds at both DSCC and DNCC.

About the pilot project, Taposh also said that a policy and a draft contract had been prepared for the owners who would operate buses on the pilot route.

‘We have decided to finalise the draft contract by July 8 and the contract is likely to be conducted on July 29,’ he said.

The south city mayor also said that an expert panel had already submitted a report and started designing the terminals and depots in Kanchpur, Hemayetpur, Batulia and Baghair area in Keraniganj so that the inter-district buses bypass Dhaka city.

The next meeting is scheduled to be held on July 29, he added.

The meeting was also attended by the committee members, including BRTA chairman Nur Mohammad Mazumder, Bangladesh Road Transport Corporation chairman M Tajul Islam, Rajdhani Unnayan Kartripakkha chairman ABM Amin Ullah Nuri, Dhaka Transport Coordination Authority executive director Khandakar Rakibur Rahman, Dhaka Metropolitan Police additional commissioner Md Muhibur Rahman, public transport expert SM Saleh Uddin, Bangladesh Road Transport Owners’ Association secretary general Khandakar Enayet Ullah and Bangladesh Road Transport Workers’ Federation general secretary Osman Ali.