Transport owners in the capital on Wednesday vowed again to stop the ‘seating’ and ‘gate-lock’ bus services amid allegations that buses continued to charge much higher than the increased bus fares set by the government on Sunday.

‘As we have received allegations that some buses are running illegal gate-lock and seating services, we are declaring today that no bus can run such services and giving the buses three days to remove the titles from the buses,’ said Bangladesh Road Transport Owners’ Association general secretary Khandakar Enayet Ullah at a press conference.

He said that after the three days, the association would request the Bangladesh Road Transport Authority to send the buses to dumping stations and take other legal actions if they did not stop the gate-lock and seating services.

In October 2017, a committee formed by the BRTA  recommended bringing the ‘seating service’ in Dhaka city under a legal framework but till now the recommendation has yet to be implemented.

Commuters allege that most of the buses charge extra fares for ‘seating service’ without providing the service and the situation has aggravated after latest fare hike.

Enayet also claimed that only 3.26 per cent buses in Dhaka were running on compressed natural gas while almost no buses on long routes ran on CNG.

‘Within the next three days, we will try to put stickers on buses marking each of them as diesel-run bus or CNG-run bus for assisting people,’ he said, adding that the association has urged all bus owners across the country hang the new fare charts at visible places in the buses and not to collect extra fares.

The press conference was jointly organised by the association and the Bangladesh Road Transport Workers’ Federation at the association office in the capital. 

Eleven joint vigilance teams comprising BRTA executive magistrates, Dhaka Metropolitan Police personnel and representatives of transport owner and worker’s organisations are scheduled to start working today to check charging of extra fares by buses, including the CNG-run ones.

The government on Sunday increased the fares by 27 per cent only for diesel-run buses after transport owners had gone on an indefinite strike on Friday demanding the fare hike in the wake of the diesel price hike.  

On November 4, the government increased the prices of diesel and kerosene by 23 per cent to Tk 80 a litre from Tk 65

Most city buses continued to charge higher than the fares set by the government for the third day on Wednesday in Dhaka and Chattogram after the transport strike had been withdrawn Sunday night.

Many long-route buses, including the CNG-run buses, allegedly also charged higher fares in different districts on Wednesday.

Passengers in Dhaka city also alleged that most of the city buses still did not have the new fare charts while the new charts were not available at all counters at two inter-district bus terminals.

Ten BRTA mobile courts in Dhaka and Chattogram conducted drives on the day and fined 244 diesel-run and 52 CNG-run buses around Tk 3.36 lakh for charging higher fares and other offences.

Mobile courts operated by two executive magistrates of the Dhaka district administration also fined 18 buses and minibuses Tk 45,500.

Enayet Ullah on the day also claimed that under 120 companies, around 6,000 buses and minibuses ran on the Dhaka city roads and the outskirts of Dhaka and of the vehicles, only 196 buses were running on CNG.

Denying the allegations that the number of CNG-run buses will be much higher and many of such buses brand themselves as diesel-run buses, Enayet claimed that around 10 to 12 years ago, the number of CNG-run buses was higher and as many of the buses got out of service soon, their owners converted the buses to diesel-run ones. 

The press conference was attended by BRTWF general secretary Osman Ali, among others.