The Supreme Court has banned the plying of battery-operated three-wheeler passenger vehicles, Easy Bikes, on the highways of the country.
They will be, however, allowed on other roads as long as they are legal, according to the order issued by Chief Justice Hasan Foez Siddique on Monday.
The Appellate Division amended a previous High Court order issued in December 2021, which banned the import of these vehicles from China and ordered authorities to remove them from the roads.
The High Court then also issued a rule asking why the government's inaction would not be declared illegal.
The top court on Monday also ordered the High Court to dispose of the rule.
The High Court’s order came last year in response to a petition filed by one Kazi Zashimul Islam, president of BAAGH Eco Motors.
It said that the around 4 million easy bikes operating in the country charge their batteries through illegal power connections and that they were imported from China without the Bangladesh Road Transport Authority’s clearance.
The government is also losing a huge amount of revenue as it does not get money from battery-run three-wheelers, the petition argued.
