Why electric buses won’t fix Dhaka’s transport system

In his budget speech for the fiscal year 2025-26, Finance Adviser Dr Salehuddin Ahmed announced a plan to introduce 400 electric buses into Dhaka's public transport network to make the system "sustainable, safer, and environmentally friendly." While the optics of modernising our public transport fleet are appealing, as a transport policy analyst, I must argue that this intervention is fundamentally misplaced. Introducing electric buses into Dhaka's current transport ecosystem is an attempt to solve a software crisis with new hardware.

Before we celebrate the arrival of electric vehicles, we must examine what is already on our roads. Dhaka is a city where unfit buses without tail lights or side mirrors operate freely, and thousands of drivers hold fake licences. These smoke-belching vehicles are not on the road by accident; they are there because of a systemic failure to enforce fitness standards.

The reason lies in the governance breakdown at the heart of our transport sector. The Bangladesh Road Transport Authority (BRTA), the very agency tasked with regulation, has long been criticised as a den of corruption. If the current regulatory regime cannot stop a diesel bus with faulty brakes and a fake licence from operating, how will it manage the complex maintenance and safety requirements of an electric fleet?

An electric bus project does not address this problem; it merely adds a new variable to a chaotic equation. Without confronting the corruption that allows unfit vehicles to bypass the law, these expensive new buses will simply join the chaos by design that defines our streets.

Bangladesh's policymakers have a long-standing tendency to prioritise projects with high visibility over those that deliver usability. Buying 400 buses makes for a good headline. The harder, less visible work, such as strengthening enforcement, ensuring accountability, and pursuing structural reform, is routinely neglected.

We need only recall the fate of the Dhaka Nagar Paribahan initiative. That pilot project sought to impose discipline through a franchise model but stalled in the face of opposition from influential transport owners and syndicates. These groups benefit from the existing lawless system, which allows them to maximise trips with minimal oversight. Unless the government demonstrates the political will to confront these syndicates, many of whom are politically connected, introducing new buses on the same fragmented routes will produce the same tragic outcomes.

Before launching such an expensive, yet isolated and poorly sequenced project, attention must return to the fundamentals. Enforcement capacity comes first. At present, the Dhaka Metropolitan Police (DMP) is responsible for managing traffic but lacks a functional line of accountability or coordination with other relevant agencies, while the BRTA issues licences but has no authority to enforce laws on the ground. A unified approach is essential, one in which agencies do not operate in silos.

Equally important is a clear chain of accountability. A national task force should be empowered to oversee the entire transport ecosystem, ensuring that when the system fails, specific institutions are held responsible.

Finally, corruption must be addressed head-on. As long as fitness certificates can be purchased and syndicates can shape policy, no amount of modern technology will make our roads safer.

Dhaka's transport crisis is not rooted in a lack of vehicles or technology; it is a crisis of order. Introducing electric buses at this stage is akin to applying a fresh coat of paint to a structurally unsound building. We do not yet need more buses with advanced technology. We need the rule of law. Until the governance crisis is resolved, 400 electric buses will amount to little more than a silent addition to a very loud failure.

Sajedul Hoq is a development practitioner and the president of Bangladesh Traffic & Transport Forum. He can be reached at sajedhoq@gmail.com.

Views expressed in this article are the author's own. 

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