The government has announced that new taxicabs will be introduced in the capital before Pohela Boishakh in mid-April.
With the T20 World Cup due to start in two weeks, it is a missed opportunity for the first batch of 500 new taxicabs, not to be running well before the tournament.
Dhaka is conspicuous for having very few taxis running on its streets.
We welcome the communications minister’s announcement that the terms and conditions for importing taxicabs are being relaxed to help the introduction of new services. It is long overdue for this process to be speeded up.
Plans to introduce 1,000 new taxicabs were first announced in 2010. The Army Welfare Trust and Toma Construction and Company Ltd, which won the bidding process to introduce the new services, have had to endure a long wait for the import approval process to be progressed by the Bangladesh Road Transport Authority.
Modern well-run taxis are a vital part of any large city’s infrastructure. It is a symptom of Dhaka’s congestion and transport crisis that we do not currently have adequately functioning taxi services.
The inconvenience caused by the lack of modern taxis is acute and adds to the burden on other forms of transport and artificially increases the number of private cars clogging up traffic.
BRTA’s announcement that the new taxicabs will be properly regulated to ensure they run for the convenience of passengers is a welcome move in the right direction.
The government should go further to allow more cabs to be imported in future, to encourage the market to develop and provide better taxi services for all city dwellers.
