A research study submitted in paliial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of Master of Business Administration, School of Management

Research report (M.Sc.) - Asian Institute of Technology, 2005

Despite its current population of 10 million, and forecasted the population of 21 million by 2015, Dhaka has no well developed resources to provide transport requirements of this vast population. Moreover vehicular pollution has become a major contributor to deteriorating air quality in Dhaka. This work discovers major deficiencies in the bus transportation sector. No significant large-scale corporate investment has occurred in the bus industry since the inception of the country. The bus sector is comprised of only fragmented individual private ownership and state-owned lose making transport operator. The `corporate' urban bus sector has failed to develop in Dhaka largely because the operating, regulatory and economic environment is not attractive to large-scale corporate investment. There are too many risks and disincentives to large-scale investment in the industry. This work recommends twin strategy of exclusive bus route franchise and CNG bus operation for successful corporate investment in the bus sector.