During rush hours, bus passengers are charged ‘seating service’ fares, but rarely get seats.
Buses still pick up as many people as possible, from as many stops as possible, and even though everyone is charged extra for seats, the majority of commuters travel the routes while standing.
But these buses actually charge lower fares during most of the day, operating as ‘local’ buses. It is during office time that these buses suddenly become ‘seating services’, but only in terms of extracting a higher fare.
Around 8,000 buses and minibuses ply the routes of Dhaka and its outskirts, according to the Bangladesh Road Transport Authorities.
Hundreds of commuters wait to catch a transport to work or back home at Dhaka's Farmgate. Photo: Abdullah Al Momin
“The bus workers keep the doors shut. Sometimes I ask traffic police for help. They see my suffering and make buses stop to pick me up. Women suffer the most. They can’t even get on,” he said.
Abida Sultana, who lives in Shewrapara, described her morning commute, “The first thing is there’s never any seat. And sometimes male passengers tell bus workers to not pick up women!”
‘Seating services’ are making bus services in Dhaka even worse, according to Sadekur Rahman, who works in a private firm near Farmgate.
“There are not enough buses in Dhaka. Now most of these are seating services, which lowers the chance for a person to catch a bus.
“Most of the buses on my route have become so-called seating services in the past couple of years. They push you out and as usual, behave very badly.”
Mohammad Ibrahim, a lineman for bus service Thikana Paribahan, said: “All bus services on this side work that way.”
“To tell you the truth, we provide ‘fitting services’. Just the fare is for ‘seating’. We pick up passengers wherever we find them.”
Mamun, a bus driver’s helper for Labbaik Paribahan, had something similar to say. “Are there seating services in Dhaka? Buses get filled to the brim.”
“They’re students, they get ride privileges so we have to pick them up,” claimed driver Kamal Hossain.
LOOKING BACK
Seating services were once shut down by the government in 2017 over complaints of passenger harassment and bus helpers demanding extra fares.
When mobile courts began bus service inspections in May that year, many transport owners retaliated by halting bus services, plunging commuters in chaos.
There were also reports of fights breaking out between passengers and bus workers during the standoff.
After talks were held with bus owners, the BRTA halted the inspections and formed a committee to decide whether seating services should continue.
The committee decided the services should continue ‘but on a limited scale’, and made 26 recommendations for bringing order into the city’s transport sector.
Passengers are ‘long accustomed’ to seating services and bus owners feel ‘comfortable’ running that system, said the committee report.
The committee also recommended that regional transport committees be given the responsibility to allocate the number of buses a company can use for seating services.
In 2018, the Bangladesh Jatri Kalyan Samiti, released a survey. It said 96 percent of the 1,053 buses from 21 routes it surveyed were providing ‘seating services’.
“The situation got worse during last year. We are not sure if the people who have jurisdiction to enforce regulations are doing that job. Transport service owners have become more brazen,” said Mozammel Hoque Chowdhury, secretary general of the passenger welfare association.
WHAT NOW?
“We’ve shifted to seating services because for our own benefit,” said Babul Sheikh, chairman of the Gulistan-Bimanbandar Paribahan Service.
“It becomes difficult for us to collect fares if we are not running seating services. Passengers pay for a ride to Banani, but get off at the Airport.”
Thikana Paribahan managing director Ripon Mollah runs searing services to avoid being “tormented by his own drivers”. But even with seating services, the drivers pick up more passengers for extra profit.
“If we tell them to operate like a local bus, they’ll stop in every bus stop and make delays. We began seating services because we wanted to improve our work. Owners don’t profit from it. But we can’t control our workers. They’ve been told to run seating services. But they are greedy for more money,” he said.
Dhaka Road Transport Owners' Association general secretary Khandaker Enayet Ullah told bdnews24.com that there exists “no permit” for running seating services.
“We wanted the service to come under discipline. We formed a committee and made some recommendations. But those were never implemented.”
When asked why, none could answer it. BRTA Director Mahbub-E-Rabbani said, people can complain to mobile courts if buses charge them extra for so-called seating services. The authorities cannot do much if they don’t receive complaints.
Dhaka Metropolitan Police Additional Commissioner Mir Rezaul Alam told bdnews24.com that they are “looking into the matter”.
“Where’ll people go if every bus just does seating services? We’ll take the measures against them in line with the law. People can’t just carry on illegal stuff.”
