Uncertainty over Dhaka-Agartala bus service

Agartala, Aug 1 (UNI) Uncertainty looms large over the future of Dhaka-Agartala bus service after closure of a ticket counter, maintained by Bangladesh Road Transport Corporation (BRTC) in Agartala.

According to Tripura Road Transport Corporation (TRTC) officials here, BRTC has closed down its counter for last one week though the TRTC is carrying out its passenger bus service between Agartala and Dhaka.

BRTC had been talking about poor turn out of passengers after nearly four and a half years of operation. The bus service was introduced on September 19, 2003 under an agreement signed between Bangladesh and the India in 2001.

Since the launch of the bus service, it could not attract adequate travellers from both the countries as quite often the scheduled bus trip was cancelled for not having any passenger.

In a 35-seat capacity bus, on an average, 25 seats remain vacant on each trip'', TRTC sources said and added that BRTC was facing shortage of passengers on the Dhaka-Agartala route. But the BRTC does not incur any loss they were running this route through a private operator.

They attributed the lack of enough tourism sites in Agartala to the shortage of passengers or tourists from Bangladesh. One bus departs from Dhaka every Monday, Wednesday and Friday and leaves Agartala every Tuesday, Thursday and Saturday. The two-way trip between Dhaka and Agartala costs Rs 600 per passenger.

UNI