The Ministry of Road Transport and Bridges will finalise the reduction of fare
Published : 01 Apr 2024, 04:26 PM
The Bangladesh Road Transport Authority (BRTA) has recommended reducing the fare for the diesel-run buses running in the city and to long-haul destinations by Tk 0.03 per kilometer after the government decreased the price of the fuel oil.
The BRTA held a meeting in its headquarters in Banani on Monday and forwarded the recommendation to the Ministry of Road Transport and Bridges. The ministry will finalise the decision.
The Consumers Association of Bangladesh (CAB), the Dhaka Transport Coordination Authority, and the Transport Owners Association took part in the meeting led by BRTA Chairman Nur Mohammad Majumdar.
As part of its automatic fuel price coordination, the government reduced the prices of kerosene and diesel by Tk 2.25 per litre in April.
Hence, the price of diesel and kerosene now stands at Tk 106 per litre after dropping from Tk 108.25 per litre. Prices of petrol and octane remained the same as before at Tk 122 per litre and Tk 126 per litre.
The diesel price reduction was announced on Sunday and the BRTA coordination committee fixed the new fare on Monday. Sitanshu Shekhar Mondal, director at BRTA Engineering Department shared the market prices of the machinery parts used in the transport sector.
CAB General Secretary Md Humayun Kabir Bhuiyan demanded the reduction of bus fare by Tk 0.05 per kilometer. The bus owners initially rejected any decrease in the fare and later agreed to reduce Tk 0.02 per km. Later, it was decided to drop the fare by Tk 0.03 per km.
The proposed fare chart notes Tk 2.12 to be charged per km, down from Tk 2.15, for long-haul buses and Tk 2.42 per km, down from Tk 2.45, for the buses running in the Dhaka and Chattogram metropolitan areas.
Meanwhile, the transport owners have demanded the new fare chart take effect after Eid-ul-Fitr.
The last time the bus fare was revised was on Aug 31, 2022, when the diesel price was dropped by Tk 0.05 per litre.
At that time, long haul buses had their fare reduced from Tk 2.20 to Tk 2.15 and the buses running in Dhaka and Chattogram had it decreased from Tk 2. 50 to Tk 2.45.