Sources said if there had been no burden of bank loans, the state-owned corporation would have clocked profit.

"Had it been only our operative surplus apart from bank loan, the organisation could have made a good profit," commented BRTC Chairman Taimur Alam Khandaker.

Sources said, BRTC is faced with a total loss of Tk 2093.46 million until 2004 since its beginning in 1961. It also faced depreciation worth Tk 2461.7 million during the period. However, the total operative surplus is Tk 260.7 million.

In 2003-2004, the organisation faced a net loss of Tk 312.27 million which includes Tk 154.2 million as bank interest, they said.

"We have nothing to do when it comes to interests of banks and depreciation," said one of them, "These can not be avoided."

The chairman said, BRTC is still bearing the loans and other credits that began from as early as 1961. He said, the organisation took huge amount of bank loan during the liberation war in 1971 to buy 100 trucks from abroad.

However, it was delivered at Karachi port of the then West Pakistan that never reached the organisation. "BRTC is still bearing the loan and paying interest for it," the chairman said, "Banks would not bother whether we have received the trucks or not. BRTC has to pay against the loans it took."

Moreover, the chairman mentioned that 100 buses were 'dumped' on BRTC during the regime of Ershad government in the eighties. He said, Dhaka City Corporation (DCC) tried to operate a city service with those buses but failed. "DCC dumped those low quality buses on BRTC and it is still bearing the maintenance cost and depreciation for them," he added.

At present BRTC has around 700 buses to operate. The buses ply on different routes within the capital. It has inter-district services, which is limited within a few parts in the country due to several reasons including protest from private bus operators.

"They (private bus operators) vandalize BRTC buses as they hamper their business by offering cheaper rates. But we do not get any help from the government," said the chairman.

It also introduced the first Indo-Bangla direct road link on Dhaka-Kolkata route in June 1999 and the second one in Dhaka-Agartala route in September 2003. While the first one turned out to be profitable, service in the second route received very low response from passengers. The BRTC authority earlier told The Daily Star they would continue the service in spite of financial losses.

Despite financial losses the organisation provides free service on special occasions. "BRTC is a public-service-oriented organisation and we try to provide the people with necessary services whenever possible," the chairman expressed.