Jatri Kalyan Samity has warned that the risk of road accidents will increase if motorcyclists are harassed on roads because of the decision to ban ride-sharing on highways during Eid travel.
Mozammel Haque Chowdhury, secretary general of the passenger welfare body, voiced his concerns in a statement on Tuesday.
“Neither the Bangladesh Road Transport Authority (BRTA) nor the traffic authorities have an exact database of ride-sharing motorcycles. As a result, there is no way to differentiate a riding-sharing motorcycle from a personal one,” he said.
Traffic police often stopped speeding motorcycles in the middle of the road to check their documents, but such a method increased the risk of road accidents, Mozammel added.
He urged law enforcement officials to take utmost precaution in ensuring that no motorcyclist was harassed or had to pay extortion money in the name of checking documents.
Currently more than 3.7 million motorcycles ply the country’s roads, according to the statement. It added that people are becoming increasingly dependent on motorcycles for various reasons, including a public transport crisis, harassment of passengers, extra fares and mismanagement of train tickets.
However, such risky vehicles could not be an alternative to public transport, said Jatri Kalyan Samity.
Mozammel said it was important to take effective steps to resolve the public transport crisis, improve the quality of passenger services and stop harassment of passengers.
He urged the government to allow the movement of bikes during Eid with a speed limit until the public transport crisis was resolved.
Also Read- Government restricts motorcycle movement for 7 days during Eid
