Many buses of the Bangladesh Road Transport Corporation, bought in the past 15 years, have practically become scrap heaps allegedly due to poor maintenance.
Corporation officials admitted that the buses became unrepairable soon after purchase in absence of proper maintenance and servicing.
The last lot of its buses, however, were bought in 2019, after which no new ones were added to its fleet, said the corporation鈥檚 public relations officer Mostakim Bhuiyan.
Between 2009鈥�2010 and 2018鈥�2019 fiscal years, the BRTC purchased 1,558 buses costing Tk 937.97 crore.
Currently, of them 1,102 are running, 64 are under heavy repairs and 343 have been declared as 鈥榖eyond economic repair鈥� meaning the cost of repairs will be financially unviable.
The corporation is selling the unrepairable buses as scraps, BRTC officials said.
Scrapping of these buses coupled with no new purchases since 2020 has led the BRTC fleet to shrink over the past years.
As of February 10, the corporation had 1,311 buses in its fleet鈥�1,160 of which were running, 78 were under heavy repairs, 26 under light repairs, and 24 unrepairable.
In February 2024 the fleet had 1,350 buses, the number of which was the same in May 2023, in May 2022 the fleet comprised 1,600 buses, in December 2021 it had 1,762 buses, in August 2020 the number was 1,835, and in June 2017 the fleet size was 1,536.聽
Former BRTC chairman Md Tazul Islam, who was promoted as the secretary to the Implementation Monitoring and Evaluation Division under the planning ministry on February 25, told 抖阴精品 on February 10 that when he joined the position in February 2021 he got only 885 running buses in the fleet.
鈥業 found that even the buses purchased in 2019 went completely unrepairable, while half of the buses bought between 2009 and 2011 were in running condition,鈥� Tazul said.
Considering the economic life of the buses the corporation bought, all the 1,558 buses bought between 2009鈥�2010 fiscal year and fy2018鈥�19 should have been in running condition when he joined, the chairman added.
Some of the buses were not serviced for as long as four years owing to fund shortages and lack of technicians and workshops, he said.
Afterwards they had focused on repairing the vehicles, bringing around 400 buses back on the road through a survey conducted by the Bangladesh Army experts.
The BRTC Integrated Central Workshop in Gazipur was closed for around 20 years until 2021 when he had it restarted, Tazul said.
The state-owned corporation was infested with corruption, the main perpetrators of which were the depot managers, Tazul said, claiming that the corruption was strongly dealt with under his lead.聽聽聽聽
鈥業 have made many enemies because I have caught everyone,鈥� he said, adding that the rampant corruption was in check now.聽
In 2018鈥�19, the BRTC bought 600 buses with a 12-year life expectancy from India.
The lot had in it 300 Ashok Leyland double-deckers, 200 Ashok Leyland air-conditioned single-deckers and 100 non-AC single-decker Tata buses.
Currently, of the lot, two AC single-decker buses have been scrapped, 11 are under heavy repairs and 571 are running.聽
In 2012鈥�13, it bought 138 Ashok Leyland buses鈥�88 AC single-deckers and 50 articulated buses鈥攁ll with a 12-year life expectancy.
Of the lot, 31 AC single-decker and 16 articulated buses have been scrapped, nine buses are under heavy repairs and 82 are running.
Earlier in 2011鈥�12, the corporation procured 290 Ashok Leyland double-decker buses also with a 12-year life expectancy, of which 237 are currently running, 20 undergoing heavy repairs and 32 scrapped.
In 2010-11, it bought 255 CNG-run AC and non-AC single-decker buses manufactured by South Korea鈥檚 Daewoo with a 15-year life expectancy.
Currently, 118 of this lot are running, 11 are under heavy repairs and 124 scrapped.
In 2009鈥�10, the BRTC purchased 275 China-made Dongfeng CNG-run single-decker buses with a 10-year life expectancy.
Currently, 94 of them are running, 13 under heavy repairs and 138 scrapped.
These buses were purchased under Indian Line of Credit 1 and 2, South Korean government鈥檚 Economic Development Cooperation Fund, and the Nordic Development Fund, a the joint finance institution of Denmark, Finland, Iceland, Norway and Sweden.
Of the BRTC buses, currently 239 are running in Dhaka city under 21 routes and in Chattogram 22 buses are running under four city routes.
Starting from 1972鈥�73 till 2019鈥�20 the state-owned corporation bought 3,611 buses.
BRTC data shows that 2,214 buses were procured from the state-owned Pragati Industries Ltd along with Indian, Swedish, South Korean and Chinese companies between 1999鈥�2000 and 2019鈥�2020, spending around Tk 1,300 crore.
In 1996, the corporation bought 50 Volvo double-decker buses with a 12-year economic life from Sweden for around Tk 50 crore. Those buses went out of order within 4鈥�7 years after hitting the road in the early 2000s.
The last one of these buses was taken off the road in 2022.
