Although more than four months had passed since the government launched a drive against unfit vehicles plying the streets of the capital, the crackdown has however failed to make any difference due to the negligence and irregularities of the authorities concerned.
Earlier in April, Communication Minister Obaidul Quader announced that a crackdown on unfit vehicles would begin from May 1. However, the deadline was later delayed for more than a month by the Bangladesh Road Transport Authority (BRTA) and other authorities concerned to give transport owners time to renew fitness certificates of their vehicles.
Talking to the Dhaka Tribune, a BRTA official seeking anonymity, informed that the authority was yet to start its drive against unfit vehicles in the city.
“The BRTA is yet to seize or fine unfit and unregistered illegal vehicles, which continue to roam the city streets freely.”
He further alleged that the transport owners had an upper hand over the authorities because of political affiliations or connections.
Despite repeated attempts, BRTA Chairman Nazrul Islam could not be reached over the phone to comment over the issue.
Earlier in May, Nazrul told the Dhaka Tribune: “Although the drive against unfit vehicles was supposed to start from May 1, we have internally set it to May 31 for the owners to collect fitness certificates afresh for all kinds of unfit vehicles.”
“If any motorised vehicle is found plying on the roads without a fitness certificate after the deadline, tough action will be taken against them,” he added.
Nazrul also claimed that action would be taken against all unauthorised transports, such as three-wheeler auto-rickshaws, human hauliers, battery-run rickshaws, different type of vans, trucks, among others.
The decision to push the deadline further came from a meeting of a task-force which was charged with coordinating the drive. The task-force comprised of officials from the BRTA, Roads and Highway Division, Dhaka Transport Coordination Authority, police and representatives from motor vehicle owners’ associations.
BRTA data showed that a total of 87,795 unfit motor vehicles were currently plying in Dhaka, posing risks to commuters and contributing much to the city’s traffic congestion problem. Besides, according to the vehicle registration authority, till July this year, a total of 8,23,184 registered motor vehicles were registered in the capital.
BRTA-issued fitness certificates are mandatory for more than 20 types of motor vehicles, including CNG-run auto-rickshaws, petrol-run auto-rickshaws, human hauliers, private cars, buses and trucks.
However, motorcycles and bicycles do not require fitness certificate to use city roads.
During a recent investigation by the Dhaka Tribune, it was found that a huge number of motor vehicles, mostly old vehicles with broken bodies, faulty brakes and engines, continue to ply on the city streets. These unfit vehicles are usually slow and break down on the middle of the road without warning, causing traffic jams.
Although most city dwellers chose public buses as an affordable mode of transport, a large number of city service buses continue to carry passengers with broken bodies, faulty engines and no headlights or brake lights, posing high risk to passengers as well as to other vehicles on the road.
Although, despite the poor condition of the buses, the road transport advisory council at a meeting on April 24 decided to give a six-month grace period to bus owners to replace their rundown vehicles.
Later in a meeting, the communications minister acknowledged that although the government had taken decision to withdraw all unfit motor vehicles from the city streets, it would not be possible to remove all as there were only 4,000 buses operating in the city of more than 15 million people.
However, according to the BRTA data, till July this year, a total of 31,179 registered buses and minibuses were plying in Dhaka.
At present, there are around 13,000 commercially-run green CNG auto-rickshaws and 3,000 private ones, usually painted gray, in the capital. The authorities are set to allow another four more years to the lifespan of CNG vehicles upon recondition.
Although the government had published a gazette notification in June this year for reconditioning old auto-rickshaws, no initiatives were taken by owners of CNG auto-rickshaws in this regard.
Besides, motorcycle based two-stroke auto-rickshaws, commonly known as Mishuks, continue to run on city roads without any permission or license. The BRTA banned 2,829 such vehicles from the city roads after their route permits expired on December 31, 2011.
A section of unscrupulous businessmen have been running their battery-powered padded rickshaws flouting a High Court ban. Hundreds of unregistered battery-run rickshaws are plying across the capital with little or no resistance from traffic police.
There are around 5,000 unfit human hauliers on the city streets at present. According to BRTA, there are 3,606 registered and around 1,500 illegal human haulers plying on city roads.
BRTA Director (enforcement) Md Matiar Rahman denied the allegations and said: “The drive against unfit and illegal vehicles in the city is a continuous process, and it will continue.”
