The Bangladesh Road Transport Authority and Chittagong Metropolitan Police yesterday conducted joint drives against the unregistered CNG-run auto- rickshaws in the city.
The BRTA and CMP authorities decided to go tough on the errant CNG-run auto-rickshaws after the deadline for installing metres expired on January 31.
The newly-fixed increased fares of CNG-run auto-rickshaws were scheduled to come into effect from Monday in the port city Chittagong.
As per BRTA, some 13,000 CNG auto-rickshaws are permitted to ply in Chittagong city. Around 7,000 more CNG auto-rickshaws ply in the city without registration. However, only half of the CNG auto-rickshaws installed metres.
Talking to the Dhaka Tribune, AKM Shahidur Rahman, CMP additional commissioner (finance, traffic and administration) said they 91 cases against CNG-run auto-rickshaws which did not install meters.
“Besides, we have also seized as many as 158 CNG auto-rickshaws which did not have registration. We will show zero tolerance to the CNG auto-rickshaws which will not install meters. Our drives will continue in the days to come,” vowed the police boss.
Earlier, on the first day of the drives on Monday, the police filed a total of 1,421 cases against the errant CNG-run auto-rickshaws in the city.
It may be mentioned that the new fare for CNG-run auto-rickshaws was fixed at Tk40 for the first two kilometres and Tk12 for each additional kilometre. The waiting charge for the CNG-run auto-rickshaws was fixed at Tk2 per minute.
“We hope that the CNG auto-rickshaws which are yet to instal meters will install shortly due to the stern action taken in the last two days,” said Mohammad Shahidullah, deputy director of Bangladesh Road Transport Authority (BRTA), Chittagong.
Meanwhile, Mozammel Hoque Chowdhury, Secretary General of Passenger Welfare Association of Bangladesh said, “The commuters’ rights have seriously been trampled down by the newly fixed fares. It is discriminatory to fix equivalent fare in Chittagong and Dhaka. Moreover, the fares have been fixed without any concern of commuters. We demand refixing the fares for greater interest of the commuters of Chittagong.”
