As many as 40,135 drivers in the Sylhet division do not have driving licences, thus posing a risk on the roads for residents of the city.
There are some 126,814 registered vehicles in Sylhet, which include private cars, buses, trucks, covered vans, microbuses, human haulers, CNG-run auto-rickshaws, and motorcycles, according to the Bangladesh Road Transport Authority (BRTA).
In contrast, the total number of professional and unprofessional drivers only stands at 86,679. However, the BRTA authorities report that there could be a higher number of unlicensed drivers in Sylhet, apart from their calculation.
The report also states that there are 99,446 registered vehicles in Sylhet district and another 27,368 registered vehicles in the metropolitan area.
Among them, there are 88,014 motorcycles and 18,846 CNG-run auto-rickshaws. The rest of the 19,828 vehicles include cars, buses, mini buses, microbuses and human haulers.
The authorities also mentioned that as of February, a total of 34,671 vehicles have updated their fitness documents, which leaves only 4,003 vehicles with out-of-date fitness certificates.
Several transport owners and BRTA officials told Dhaka Tribune that many old and unregistered cars in Sylhet get repainted after a few years to be able to operate on the roads again.
Some even change the outer parts of the vehicles, including the roofs, windshields, and bumpers to make them look new. To this end, a number of factories have opened in different areas of the city, particularly Kodomtoli, Mominkhola, and Shiv Bari.
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They have also mentioned that many mini buses, plying on the Sylhet-Zakiganj, Sylhet-Tamabil-Jaintapur, Kanaighat, Sylhet-Bishwanath, Sylhet-Sherpur, Baralekha, Beanibazar-Golapganj, Companiganj, and Sylhet-Sunamganj roads do not even have signal lights and rearview mirrors to ensure safety.
An inhabitant of Sylhet, Rajan Chowdhury, who regularly uses buses as a means of commuting, said that the buses plying on the roads were of low quality and broke down in the middle of the road quite often.
“Several buses with locked doors were recently launched in Sylhet, and they are of decent quality. But the rest of the vehicles are rather substandard,” he said.
Meanwhile, according to the BRTA report, there are around 3,000 trucks that are used for carrying stones from quarries in Sylhet.
However, a stone trader named Saidur Rahman told Dhaka Tribune that there were more trucks in this business than what had been registered by BRTA.
“Truck companies in Sylhet sell their vehicles in installments. Since the stone quarries have been shut for the last three years, traders have not been able to pay the regular installment money or upgrade their fitness certificates.
There are, therefore, more than 3,000 trucks without valid fitness documents in Bholaganj alone,” he added.
Shabbir Ahmed Fayez, organizing secretary of Sylhet Division Truck-Owners Workers Unity Council, however, rejected all the statistics presented by BRTA and said all the trucks in Sylhet were in possession of updated documents.
“We have updated documents for our vehicles but police still impose fines, saying the documents are not valid,” he said.
He also mentioned that many truck owners had gone bankrupt after the closure of the stone quarries. “How will they update the papers if they don’t have money to even feed their families?” he added.
Abul Kalam, president of Sylhet district Bus-Minibus Owners Association, claimed that there were no unlicensed bus and mini bus drivers in Sylhet. “We do not allow drivers to get on the vehicles without licences.”
However, he said there might be unlicensed drivers on smaller passenger vehicles.
He advised the authorities concerned to simplify the process of getting a license and upgrading fitness documents for vehicles.
Moreover, he urged BRTA officials to take strict action in regard to the matter, as it could not be handled by the police alone.
BRTA Sylhet Assistant Director (Engineering) Md Sanaul Haque said drives against unfit vehicles had been suspended during the Covid-19 outbreak. “We will soon start them again.”
Meanwhile, a report by the Road Safety Foundation said that as many as 543 people were killed in 427 road accidents across Bangladesh in April.
At least 612 more people were injured in the accidents, according to the latest edition of the report published on Saturday.
The report states that 206 or 37.93% of the victims died in motorcycle accidents.
Moreover, 116 pedestrians were killed in these accidents, accounting for 21.36% of the victims.
A total of 16 people who died were either drivers or drivers’ assistants. It said on average 18 people died every day in April.