Unapproved sleeper buses pose serious safety risks

Ekhlach Haque

Ordinary buses are being converted into sleeper coaches at roadside garages and workshops without approved designs or engineering advice, raising serious safety concerns for passengers.

Sleeper buses have become increasingly popular on long-distance and tourist routes, offering passengers greater comfort. However, experts warn that unauthorised modifications—including adding extra berths, changing seating arrangements, and altering the body, stairs, windows and other components—can compromise safety.

They said any structural modification must consider the vehicle’s weight and balance, braking capacity, suspension, tyre capacity, emergency exits, fire safety and passenger capacity. Changes made solely for commercial gain without engineers or public transport experts could put passengers at serious risk.

The concerns have intensified following a fatal accident in Sylhet’s Osmaninagar on August 7, when a sleeper bus of Bengal Paribahan collided head-on with a Unique Paribahan bus, leaving nine people, including a child, dead and 12 injured.

The Bangladesh Road Transport Authority (BRTA) has also taken action against unauthorised sleeper bus modifications. In a raid on body-building garages in Dhaka’s Jatrabari on Wednesday, five workshops were fined Tk 50,000 each for making or repairing unauthorised sleeper buses and operating without proper registration.

Transport experts stressed that bus modification is not merely mechanical work and should be carried out under proper engineering supervision. They also called for stricter monitoring of garages and greater transparency about the safety and approval status of sleeper buses so passengers can make informed choices.