The Chittagong Metropolitan Police announced a ban to be placed on battery-run rickshaws in the port city again on Thursday.
The owners and rickshaw pullers have been given three days to remove the electric motors and batteries from their rickshaws. After the deadline, CMP would start a drive against the battery-run rickshaws from March 23.
The decision came after a meeting among CMP high officials, battery-run rickshaw owners and pullers associations, and Bangladesh Road and Transport Authority. CMP Commissioner Abdul Jalil Mandal presided over the meeting, said CMP sources.
CMP Additional Commissioner (Administration, Finance and Traffic) AKM Shahidur Rahman told Dhaka Tribune that the six-month time given in a stay order from the High Court on the motorised rickshaws plying the city roads ended on March 15. The battery-run rickshaw owners-pullers failed to avail further extension of the stay order.
“According to the law, we have decided to take the rickshaws off the streets from next Monday,” the AC added.
Earlier, on July 3 last year, the High Court had ordered to stop the battery-run rickshaws from plying Dhaka and Chittagong city roads. The local administration and concerned government bodies started drives against the rickshaws on August 31.
Later, a group of the battery-run rickshaw owners and pullers pleaded before a HC bench which issued a stay order for six months on the ban.