Buses in Dhaka are losing popularity as public transport due to the lack of improvements in their services and the lack of fresh investment.
The share of buses in covering daily trips generated in the greater Dhaka area fell drastically in the past 14 years, revealed a survey conducted under a project for updating the Strategic Transport Plan for Dhaka for the period of 2025鈥�2045.
During the past 14 years, the number of buses in the capital also decreased significantly.
Against this backdrop, the number of smaller vehicles has increased on the roads and, as a result, traffic congestion on city roads has also increased.
Terming the situation alarming, road transportation experts alleged that crores of taka from public funds were wasted in different planning for the transport sector and people were wasting their money on other modes of costly transport but traffic congestion continued to increase gradually over the years.
The road transport and bridges ministry is now drafting the Updating the Revised Strategic Transport Plan for Dhaka for the period of 2025鈥�2045, which would cover an area of 1,750 square kilometres in six districts, including Dhaka.
Officials said that a detailed survey, titled URSTP and URSTP Household Interview Survey, was done in 2023 for the project.
According to the survey, daily 3.87 crore trips were generated in the greater Dhaka area in 2023.
The survey showed that walking covered the highest 38.3 per cent trips followed by 25.8 per cent covered by rickshaws, 11.4 per cent by Compressed Natural Gas-run auto-rickshaws, 10.8 per cent by motorcycles, 9.3 per cent by transit which include buses, legunas and tempos and 4.4 per cent by cars in 2023.
Among the transit, the share of buses was the highest, said the project officials.
As per Dhaka Urban Transport Network Development Project, a similar study conducted in 2009, showed that rickshaws covered the highest 38.7 per cent trips followed by 28.5 per cent by buses, 19 per cent by walking, 6.7 per cent by auto-rickshaws and 5.2 per cent by cars in that year.
As per the survey in 2023, among the transports, the highest 27 per cent were motorcycles, 22 per cent non-motorised transports, 20 per cent cars and taxis, 14 per cent three-wheeler vehicles, 7 per cent microbuses, jeeps and pickup vans, 6 per cent trucks, 3 per cent buses and one per cent were other types of transports.
In the case of the number of buses, as per the Bangladesh Road Transport Authority website, a total of 26,264 buses and minibuses were registered in Dhaka till 2012.
The actual number of buses in service in Dhaka in 2012 was only 5,000 to 5,500, BRTA officials and the leaders of the Dhaka Road Transport Owners鈥� Association said.
Till March this year, the BRTA website shows, a total of 53,299 buses and minibuses were registered in Dhaka.
The Dhaka Transport Coordination Authority officials, however, said that the number of buses now in service on Dhaka roads would be 3,500 to 4,000.
SM Salehuddin, a former executive director of the DTCA who was involved in the planning of the first STP in 2005, said that brining all buses under some companies to control the system was a must for bringing order in the transport sector.
Salehuddin is also a member of the committee formed to implement the Bus Route Franchise Project in Dhaka.
鈥業f we could have maintained the bus system as per the STP 2005, the share of buses in covering trips would have been over 50 per cent now,鈥� he said.
He further said that the bus owners鈥� and workers鈥� associations were now controlling the sector but they were not interested in fresh investment in fear of incurring losses as the number of trips was less than their expectation due to traffic congestion.
The roads now have become narrower due to encroachment, he said.
Professor Shamsul Hoque, the director of the Accident Research Institute of Bangladesh University of Engineering and Technology, said that the number of small vehicles, especially motorcycles, had increased significantly.
As a result, the mobility and productivity of buses reduced in the past 14 years, he said.
鈥楶ublic transport is now becoming unpopular as the dependency on smaller vehicles is increasing. 聽The presence of an increased number of smaller vehicles increases traffic congestion on roads in Dhaka,鈥� he said.
Professor Shamsul, also specialised in transportation engineering, said that 70 per cent trips should be covered by the public transport in a healthy city in modal share.
Even when the roads cannot be increased, the productivity of buses can be increased by using double-decker ones, he mentioned.
鈥業n Dhaka, on the contrary, buses are now unproductive in number and in trips due to the presence of a huge number of smaller vehicles on Dhaka roads,鈥� he added.
SM Salehuddin also said that around Tk 14 crore to Tk 18 crore was spent for the STP 2005 but nothing but a metro rail line and an elevated expressway was implemented.
People are now being forced to use costly metro services due to the mistakes of not implementing the STP, he said.
The draft revised plan reads that traffic congestion is expected to increase in 2045 as both the population and traffic demand will be increased.
The Asian Development Bank and the Japan Fund for Prosperous and Resilient Asia and the Pacific are supporting the ministry with around $3 million in drafting the second revised STP between May 2022 and June 2025.
The 20-year STP for the Greater Dhaka Area, covering Dhaka, Gazipur, Manikganj, Munshiganj, Narayanganj and Narsingdi districts, was first formulated in 2005 in collaboration with the World Bank.
The STP underwent the first revision in 2015.