Evaluation of satisfaction level of waterbus services in Dhaka city from commuters’ perspective

Abstract

Traffic congestion is considered as an acute problem for Dhaka city, the capital of Bangladesh. The whole city got stuck at the peak hours due to heavy traffic volume and the city incurs huge economic loss due to loss of working hours. As Dhaka is surrounded by five main rivers i.e., Buriganga, Balu, Tongi, Turag and Sitolakha as well as several lakes (i.e., Hatirjheel, Dhanmondi, Gulshan etc.) are observed inside the city, implementation of water bus services was considered as a solution to avoid traffic congestion in certain places for the commuters here. That's why initially BIWTC (Bangladesh Inland Water Transport Corporation) had launched a water bus service from Sadarghat to Gabtoli touching several locations through Buriganga and Turag rivers. However, the service is about to fail and very infrequent now due to lack of insufficient passengers. Perhaps poor service quality was one of the major reasons for the insufficiency of passengers which were not explored by the concerned authority. Thus this study aims to evaluate the satisfaction level on the service quality and safety of the water bus service in Dhaka city. A water bus service on Hatirjheel lake connecting areas among Gudaraghat, Gulshan 1, Film Development Corporation, Merul-Badda is considered as a case study for this research. Although it is a running service, however, the perceptions of stakeholders regarding the service and safety issues of water bus have not been assessed yet, which is very important for promoting and flourishing water bus services in Dhaka city to save time of the commuters in future. The satisfaction level on the service quality and safety will be measured by 150 passengers using this route through a questionnaire survey. The questions will focus two broader perspectives i.e. service quality and safety of the water bus. The service quality of water bus involves many features such as cleanliness, comfort, punctuality, reliability, seating capacity, convenience whereas safety perspective accounts issues like drivers' operating characteristics, safety equipment, emergency equipment, health facility, harassment etc. Linear regression model will be developed to evaluate the effects of respondents' socio economic, demographic and travel characteristics on service quality and safety of water bus. Moreover, four and three distinct models will be developed for four components (i.e., cleanliness, comfort, punctuality & reliability, driver characteristics) of service quality and three components of safety (i.e., safety equipment, emergency equipment, health facility, harassment) and two aggregated models of service quality and safety will be developed respectively. Through the results of individual models along with the overall model, x the satisfactory level of the respondents will be evaluated. These models will also reveal that the satisfaction level among commuters will greatly vary based on their socio-demographic, economic and travel characteristics. The results of this study would help the BIWTC authority to take necessary measures for improving service quality and safety of water buses. Revealing stakeholders’ opinions is essential for the successful implementation, continuation and expansion of this type of service