Staff Correspondent

More than four and a half years after a failed attempt to stop operation of “seating service” buses in Dhaka city, bus owners have decided to give a crack at it again.

Bangladesh Road Transport Owners Association yesterday said it would get rid of the seating and gate-locking service within the next three days, in a bid to stop overcharging passengers.

Seating service buses do not take standing passengers. After all the seats are occupied, helpers lock the gate. Such buses also take higher fares from commuters.

“We are receiving some allegations over seating and gate-locking service… So, bus owners must remove notices of such services plastered on the vehicles in the next three days,” said Khandaker Enayet Ullah, secretary general of the association.

“The [service] is not legal… If anyone operates buses like this after the deadline, we will ask BRTA [Bangladesh Road Transport Authority] to dump the buses through executive magistrates,” he said.

Enayet also said they would put stickers on buses in the next three days to differentiate between CNG and diesel-run buses. CNG-buses are not supposed to charge according to the new rate.

The association will form 11 vigilance teams, which will work with mobile courts of BRTA and Dhaka Metropolitan Police from today, so that no bus operator can overcharge passengers.

Enayet was speaking at a press conference organised by his association and Bangladesh Road Transport Workers’ Federation, amid major allegations of bus operators overcharging in Dhaka and Chattogram.