What is the air-conditioned bus fare on Dhaka to Rangpur route? The answer is difficult to find.
Even though the distance is the same, there is a lot of difference in fares from company to company on this route. At a distance of 300 km, Hanif and SR are charging Rs. 1,500. The fare is 1 thousand 300 taka in the arrival express, and 1 thousand 200 taka in Shah Ali Paribahan.
Air-conditioned buses are a figure on every route in the country. There are several reasons for this. First, bus means differ by company; Secondly, there is no policy of the road transport regulatory body BRTA regarding how much the fare will be.
Generally AC bus fares are almost twice as much as non-AC buses on most routes.
Air-conditioned buses are excluded from BRTA bus fares. As a result, the amount of rent to be collected is up to the company.
According to the Road Transport Act, BRTA can fix the reasonable fare if there is any complaint about air-conditioned bus fare. However, BRTA officials say that no one has complained about it yet. As a result, they did not take initiative.
According to the information of the transport owners, in 1984 in Bangladesh, a company called ‘R & Co.’ started air-conditioned buses on the route from Dhaka to Chittagong. Greenline Paribahan in 1990 and Sohag Paribahan added these buses to their fleet in 1992.
Currently, various companies including Shyamoli, Hanif, Sohag, Greenline, Ena, Desh Travels, TR Travels, Saudia, St. Martin are providing this service. BRTC also has such buses in its fleet.
However, no calculation of the number of air-conditioned buses across the country was available from BRTA. Transport owners can’t say for sure, but they think the number is close to a thousand.