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Little cheers for school bus service

Helemul Alam
Three months into its operation the special school bus service is losing both passengers and money casting a shadow over the prospects of its extension across the capital city.
Introduced on January 16, the experimental 14-bus service of Bangladesh Road Transport Corporation (BRTC) is now limited to only one route: Mirpur-11 to AzimpurviaMirpur-1 and Kalyanpur.
With the launching of the service the BRTC had hoped to wean car-riding students on to the public transport and thus help ease the city's notorious traffic congestions. It also hoped to extend the service to other routes provided the experiment proves a success.
The response so far is not going the BRTC's way.
Students from car-owning families cold-shoulder the special school bus service. It is being used largely by students from low-income families who use public transport. The service suffers a loss of around Tk 19,000 a day due to poor response from the students, said Quazi Shafique Uddin, general manager (operations) of BRTC.
Despite the poor response and financial loss, BRTC is not giving up.
"We are still hopeful and will continue with the bus service," Shafiq Uddin said.
Assistant Headmaster of Government Laboratory High School Md Insan Ali said there are many students who want to have this special bus service. “But they are not using it due to negligence of the authorities concerned," he said.
One of the problems is the non-availability of student cards for the buses.
Insan Ali said authorities are slow in providing the schools with forms for the cards. There should also be more buses, he said.
About the card, Sijan, a student of Government
Laboratory School, said he along with many of his schoolmates, filled up a BRTC form in January but he is yet to get the bus card.
BRTC official Quazi Shafique Uddin said they have provided forms to schools to know about their needs in morning and evening shifts. But the BRTC did not get the information yet, he said.
"We will prepare a database of the requirement and then we will upgrade the bus service and extend it across other routes," he said. "We will also provide students with multipurpose smart cards," he said.
The service's financial loss comes as no surprise as the buses are found to move with passengers half the capacity.
OnApril 10, The Daily Star correspondent travelled from Mirpur-11 to Azimpur to see how the service was running. The 52-seater that day had only 15 students
and a few guardians.
Mohammad Mojahid who boarded the bus at Mirpur-1 with his son Tazim Hasan complained of shortage of buses during the return journey from school. He said half the buses end their return journey at Kalyanpur instead of Mirpur-12.
“Those who like me want to travel beyond Kalyanpur suffer a lot,” he said.
However, many special bus users appeared happy.
Sajin Reja and Shariar Mobassher, students of class-V of Government Laboratory High School who boarded a bus at Paikpara, said they are very happy with the service as it makes their life easier.
"Earlier, we had to go to school with my mother on public bus. Now I use this special service as it is better and secure. I can travel alone too,” said Sajin.
Waziha Akhtar, mother of Asadullah Galib, a student of
Government Laboratory School, said she is gaining confidence to send her son alone to school as the school bus is safe.
Kazi Alamgir, a driver of school bus, said students tend to board the buses from wherever they like instead of the designated stations. This practice causes delay. “We are late in reaching the destination by at least 20 minutes even on a normal day,” he said.
There are no bus sheds at designated stops and students are reluctant to wait there, he said.
Abul Kalam, another school bus driver, said it is not possible to reduce traffic congestion unless car-using students receive this service.
Dhaka city Mayor Sadeque Hossain Khoka blames lack of coordination among the authorities for not having bus sheds for the special bus service. He said the DCC will take steps if they are asked to.