BRT system for Dhaka gets green signal

The Bangladesh cabinet yesterday approved a draft law to regulate the planned ‘bus rapid transit’ (BRT), a traffic system aimed to reduce traffic congestion in the capital Dhaka and its outskirts.
“The proposed law will regulate the BRT system designed to reduce traffic congestion in Dhaka and its adjacent areas through a dedicated bus route with the capacity to transport 40,000 passengers per hour on the Gazipur-Airport-Jhilmil route,” cabinet secretary Mohammad Shafiul Alam said after a cabinet meeting at Bangladesh Secretariat with Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina in the chair.
BRT is a large automated public transportation system introducing dedicated lanes for buses.
The draft law proposes a maximum 10 years of imprisonment or up to 5mn taka of fine or both for violating the law.
Detailing the proposed punitive actions, the top bureaucrat said if anyone operates buses in the rapid transit line without licence, if anyone hands over the licence without prior approval and if anyone prints tickets without permission will face 10 years of imprisonment or 5mn taka as fine or both.
Simultaneously, if any employee of BRT is found involved in producing illegal tickets he or she would face two years of imprisonment or a fine of 500,000 taka.
The proposed law incorporates a provision of conducting mobile court to punish the offenders. It also suggests formation of an agency to fix (bus) fares on the route.
The draft law also met some human issues like having provisions of realising mandatory compensation from the licence holders for the death or any kind of loss of a person travelling by vehicles permitted under the BRT.
The top bureaucrat said the licence holder must pay compensation to the family members of the dead or the person injured according to the ‘extent’ of losses.
Besides, the licence-holder or the appointed person or representative must send the persons to be injured due to BRT operative system to any nearby hospital and ensure their proper treatment.
In this regard, Alam said the licence-holder will have to pay the treatment cost of the injured persons who will undergo treatment on their own cost.
The cabinet secretary said the proposed law also has a provision under which the government will give necessary directives from time to time to the BRT to fix bus fares while a seven-member committee would be formed to fix bus fares on the route under the BRT while the authority would publish information on the fares in daily newspapers as well as on their website.
About the reservation of seats, Alam said the authority would ensure seat reservation for the war-wounded freedom fighters, children and the disabled in every coach under BRT system.