Community Based Transport System in Dhaka: A Study on School Van Service of Azimpur Area

School van service is a widely used service in Dhaka city. In this study, the operation and maintenance process of van services for school going children in the selected community of Dhaka city has been found out by applying several PRA methods. The emergence of this service has occurred for fulfilling the transportation need of a great number of students from lower to upper-middle income families. Gradually, this service became familiar among various residential communities and neighbourhoods, where great chunks of school going children reside and travel to respective schools. As a result, this service has flourished in the residential communities of the city spontaneously. Hence, the operation process of van service in the study area depends on the number of school going children, location of schools and reliability of parents. There are numerous reasons behind using this service rather than using school transport or private vehicle. At the same time, there are some problems that occur due to irregular time schedule of van drivers, lack of safety while travelling on the roads and carry a large number of students in a minimum space. If these problems can be solved, it will enhance the community bonding and cohesion.