Following the Motor Vehicle Ordinance, Regional Transport Committee (RTC), headed by the police commissioner of Dhaka, issues route permit for the commercial vehicles operating in Dhaka metropolitan area.

According to RTC, buses are now operating on 82 routes in the city. A total of 3,136 buses and minibuses are running with permits on those routes.

During a field survey with the help of traffic sergeants at several points, this correspondent found massive violation of route permits by the buses.

For an example, RTC designed the Duaripara-Kamalapur route (14C) via Mirpur-1, Darus Salam road, Kalyanpur, Asadgate, Science Lab, New Market, Nilkhet, Katabon, Shahbagh, Press Club, Dainik Bangla and Motijheel. Interestingly, Karnafuli, the maiden bus service on this route, operates via Mirpur-2, Mirpur-10, Bijoy Sarani, Farmgate, Shahbagh, Press Club and Motijheel, violating the prescribed route.

Abul Kalam, a bus owner of Mirpur region, said influential bus owners violate the route permits with the patronage of political governments and operate their buses on their self-designed routes.

He hoped that the non-party caretaker government would take action against such route permit violation to reduce passengers' sufferings.

"For this route permit violation, passengers of the Duaripara and Rupnagar cannot travel to New Market or Katabon areas directly by bus."

Moreover, the company has reduced the income of bus companies which are operating from Mirpur-10 to Sayedabad with proper permit, he alleged.

During the field visit, it was found that about 50 percent buses did not follow their route design or did not have any permit.

There are shortcomings in route designing too. Dozens of buses operate through the narrow roads in Mohammadpur. Bus owners said such a large number of buses should not be allowed to operate on narrow roads.

According to a RTC decision, the bus companies should have their own parking facilities at the starting and ending points of a route and if the points are in the DCC area, the company should have permission from DCC.

New Vision, a new bus operator on Rupnagar-Motijheel route, has set up their terminal on the road just in front of the Kamal Majumder School and College, creating traffic congestion in the area.

It has also increased accident risks of the students and passers-by.

Moreover, when this correspondent tried to find out how the company got the route permit, it was found that it too violated the route design.

The company is permitted to run on route 2A that starts from Dhaka Zoo and ends at Sayedabad terminal through Mirpur-1, Darus Salam, Asadgate, Farmgate, Shahbagh, Press Club, Gulistan and Ittefaq crossing.

A top official of RTC told Star City that there is a subcommittee headed by DC (traffic) North of DMP, which decides route permits and fixes ceiling of buses for a particular route. No scientific approach is followed while carrying out that task and RTC is aware of that shortcomings.

For removing the shortcomings, RTC has requested the Dhaka Transport Coordination Board (DTCB) to appoint a consultant as DTCB, BRTA and Bangladesh Bus Truck Owners association are the members of the RTC. But DTCB requested RTC to do the task on its own.

Naim Ahmed, police commissioner of Dhaka, told Star City that fixing route design and ceiling is a huge task because it depends on density of population in different areas, road capacity, number of vehicles, their fitness and others.

Within March, RTC will collect information about the routes and then steps will be taken to remove the shortcomings, he said.

GM Siraj, president of Bangladesh Bus Truck Owners Association, said lots of recommendations were made to RTC for solving the problem but somehow the recommendations were left unimplemented.

He said checking mismanagement in route permit will be a good initiative but the measures must be implemented properly.