Bangladesh Road Transport Corporation (BRTC) has purchased 500 trucks from India to increase the capacity of its goods carrying service and replace old ones. The trucks were purchased at a lower rate than the budget it was provided under a government project.
After four and a half years, another government body, which is entitled to evaluate the quality of the projects implemented by ministries and divisions, in a report said that the purchased trucks were of low quality and are already facing troubles. BRTC could have purchased better quality trucks with the budget it got.
However, BRTC field-level officials, who are now directly involved with operating those trucks, said the vehicles are still fit to serve the purposes and are able to run perfectly for at least ten more years.
Implementation, Monitoring and Evaluation Division (IMED) under the Ministry of Planning published the completed project appraisal report recently on this project implemented by BRTC from February 2016 to June 2019.
IMED said BRTC purchased the trucks in two packages to provide nationwide goods transportation services at affordable rates. The total budget for the project was Tk 217.35 crore while it spent Tk 115.72 crore.
Of the total budget, Tk 171.50 crore was supposed to be spent on purchasing 500 trucks, but BRTC spent only Tk 73.80 crore.
The trucks bought from Eicher Motors Limited of India are already on the way to spoilage. Some trucks’ bodies are rusted and perforated. Many have broken bodies due to excess cargo transportation. The cost of repairing is increasing day by day due to weak engines, it said.
According to the purchase plan, under package one, Tk 125 crore was provided to purchase 350 trucks of 15 tonnes capacity each, including spare parts after sale services. The project authorities finally spent Tk 50.12 crore for this purpose. Under this package, Tk 74.88 crore remained unused.
Under the package two, the government allocated a budget of Tk 46.50 crore to purchase 150 trucks having ten tonnes capacity each. The authorities finally purchased those vehicles at Tk 23.68 crore while Tk 22.82 crore was left unused.
Of the 500 trucks, 206 are being operated by Dhaka depot, 276 by Chattogram depot and 18 for training purposes.
While inspecting the trucks, IMED’s assistant director Mod. Kamal Hossain found that EICHER trucks were not standard. The goods get soaked while carrying during the rainy season as the body of trucks developed holes due to rust.
BRTC saved Tk 97.70 lakh as purchase price from the truck supplying company. They could have purchased better quality vehicles like VOLVO if it spent the whole budget the government allocated for the project, the IMED observed.
The better quality trucks could earn more revenue and for long term as it could be in service for longer period of time. The IMED suggested that the Ministry of Road Transport and Bridges should explain why cheap vehicles were purchased under the project as BRTC is under the ministry.
Contacted, Md. Mofiz Uddin, manager, Chattogram Truck Depot, however, said that all of the trucks they received are in service.
“We did not have any of the vehicles substandard. They do not usually get out of service while in operation. We have 276 trucks in service now including some of another Indian company,” he said.
He said that the trucks normally carry fertiliser, rice, wheat and paper. “Trucks need regular maintenance while in service. We do that. I believe if those are serviced properly, they will be alive for at least ten more years.”
He said that after every one lakh kilometres of run, the trucks will need major servicing and engine overhauling. “We are following that process as well,” he added.
According to the official, the truck under Chattogram depot has earned a profit of Tk 2 crore in the last month alone. “We could not have earned that if the trucks went out of order now and then,” he said.
According to the BRTC’s annual report of 2022-2023 fiscal year, Dhaka Truck Depot now has 207 in service vehicles. It made a profit of Tk 8.5 crore. Chattogram Truck depot has 280 running vehicles including four old ones. Thirteen vehicles are being used for training. They made a profit of Tk 11.84 crore in that FY.
Md. Tazul Islam, chairman of BRTC, could not be reached over phone for his comment in this regard. He joined state-owned transport corporation in 2021, almost two years after the project expired.
