Following a hike of Tk 20 per litre in fuel prices, bus fares for both long-distance and metropolitan routes have been raised by 17 poisha per kilometre.
These new fares were finalized during a meeting at the Ministry of Road Transport on Tuesday. Under the new decision, the fare for long-distance buses has increased from Tk 2.23 to Tk 2.40 per kilometre. Meanwhile, bus fares within the Dhaka and Chattogram metropolitan areas have been raised from Tk 2.53 to Tk 2.70 per kilometre. Earlier, during a meeting with the Bangladesh Road Transport Authority (BRTA) on Monday afternoon, the Road Transport Owners’ Association had proposed raising bus fares by 20 poisha per kilometre to align with the fuel price hike.
Their proposal had suggested increasing long-distance bus fares from Tk 2.23 to Tk 2.43 per kilometre and metropolitan fares in Dhaka and Chattogram from Tk 2.53 to Tk 2.73 per kilometre. The association had also proposed raising minibus fares within the Dhaka Transport Coordination (DTC) area from Tk 2.32 to Tk 2.52 per kilometre. However, the decision reached at Tuesday’s meeting was to increase fares by 17 poisha per kilometre—an amount lower than what the owners’ association had proposed. Consequently, passengers will have to pay higher fares for public transport following the fuel price hike.