The government has today increased bus fares by 11 paisa per kilometre, citing rising fuel costs.
Road Transport and Bridges Minister Shaikh Rabiul Alam made the announcement following a meeting with transport owners and workers held at the Secretariat in the capital.
He said the fare hike applies only to diesel-run buses, not to CNG-run buses. He also made it clear that, as before, the minimum bus fare would remain Tk 10.
A circular will be issued in this regard later in the day, the minister added.
“They [transport owners] had several additional demands. As I mentioned earlier, their maintenance costs and other expenses have increased, but we did not take those into consideration now.”
“Secondly, under the existing formula -- where fares are adjusted per taka -- the increase would have been around 15 paisa per kilometre due to fuel costs alone. However, after discussions with them, I have been able to bring it down to 11 paisa for now,” he added.
Replying to another query, the minister said, “In setting new fares, there can be scope for reconsideration and review -- you should understand this in the context of fare determination. However, at this stage, we are only making an adjustment. Therefore, in this adjustment, we have considered only the increase in fuel prices.”
He further said that if there are inconsistencies in the overall fare structure, those can be looked into when setting a new fare. Today’s meeting was not intended to fix an entirely new fare structure, he added.
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