Md Joynal Abedin Khan :
City streets have again flooded with thousands of dented and rundown buses and minibuses violating the High Court’s instruction amid repeated checking of vehicles by the traffic police and road transport authorities.
The HC, on August 3, 2015, asked the government and the police to keep unfit motor vehicles off the roads across the country.
Even many government-run BRTC buses with dilapidated condition have been seen to run defying the existing ‘Motor Vehicles Act (amendment-1988)’ that horrified the commuters in the city.
Apart from this, most of the buses and minibuses in the capital lack a decent look, with their bodies carrying innumerable dents and their paints gone since long.
The drivers of these vehicles are seen to drive recklessly, competing with each other, pick and drop passengers wherever they want, park their vehicles haphazardly and defy almost all traffic rules which often causing fatal accidents.
Mentionable that the students, mostly from schools and colleges, recently took to the streets, especially in Dhaka city, for about a week and started to control traffic compelling vehicle owners to rush at Bangladesh Road Transport Authority (BRTA) for collecting legal documents and licences, follow lanes on roads, use helmets, footbridge and zebra crossing.
Road safety experts, however, have blamed lack of monitoring by the authorities concern to ensure fitness of these vehicles.
Embarrassed with the situation, Bangladesh Road Transport Authority (BRTA) has recently requested the bus operators to repair their buses and minibuses as these vehicles are now very ‘ugly’ to look at.
According to BRTA sources, a total of 87,795 unfit motor vehicles are plying on the city roads in violation of set laws and posing threat to commuters’ safety, besides contributing to traffic congestion and environmental hazards.
The BRTA entrusted with the task of providing registration and fitness certificates to motor vehicles runs drive occasionally against the expired vehicles.
Afia Sultana Moni, a resident of Dhanmondi, who regularly commutes by a minibus from Science Lab to Mouchak Market, said, “The bus staff charge Tk 25 from per passenger for traveling almost two and a half Kilometres. It is an unfair traveling charge,”
Fatima Parvin, a resident of Mohammadpur area, said, “I go to Farmgate from Mohammadpur on a local bus, the condition of which is very derelict, but its charge goes the same as that by the direct bus services.”
“I see the shattered and broken buses during visit to any place of Dhaka city,” said Mohamad Kabir Hossain, a private job-holder in the city.
Recently, Road Transport and Bridges Minister Obaidul Quader at a discussion with leaders of transport owners and workers wondered how so many unfit and rickety vehicles could run on Dhaka roads.
Bangladesh University of Engineering and Technology’s (BUET) Accident Research Institute’s lecturer Shanewaz Hasanat-E-Rabbi said that it takes about half an hour to check the fitness of a single vehicle like bus while the authorities were currently checking fitness by looking at the outside.
SM Salehuddin, former executive director of Dhaka Transport Coordination Board, said that only painting on bodies would not bring any change on roads unless overall repair of buses and competition among buses could be stopped.
Md Nurul Islam, BRTA director (Engineering), said BRTA issues motor vehicle registration and fitness certificates. After taking fitness certificates from BRTA, many public buses are seen plying in the capital without any physical fitness.
Md Matiar Rahman, Director (enforcement) of BRTA, said, “Drive against unfit vehicles in the city is a continuous process, and it will continue.”
City streets have again flooded with thousands of dented and rundown buses and minibuses violating the High Court’s instruction amid repeated checking of vehicles by the traffic police and road transport authorities.
The HC, on August 3, 2015, asked the government and the police to keep unfit motor vehicles off the roads across the country.
Even many government-run BRTC buses with dilapidated condition have been seen to run defying the existing ‘Motor Vehicles Act (amendment-1988)’ that horrified the commuters in the city.
Apart from this, most of the buses and minibuses in the capital lack a decent look, with their bodies carrying innumerable dents and their paints gone since long.
The drivers of these vehicles are seen to drive recklessly, competing with each other, pick and drop passengers wherever they want, park their vehicles haphazardly and defy almost all traffic rules which often causing fatal accidents.
Mentionable that the students, mostly from schools and colleges, recently took to the streets, especially in Dhaka city, for about a week and started to control traffic compelling vehicle owners to rush at Bangladesh Road Transport Authority (BRTA) for collecting legal documents and licences, follow lanes on roads, use helmets, footbridge and zebra crossing.
Road safety experts, however, have blamed lack of monitoring by the authorities concern to ensure fitness of these vehicles.
Embarrassed with the situation, Bangladesh Road Transport Authority (BRTA) has recently requested the bus operators to repair their buses and minibuses as these vehicles are now very ‘ugly’ to look at.
According to BRTA sources, a total of 87,795 unfit motor vehicles are plying on the city roads in violation of set laws and posing threat to commuters’ safety, besides contributing to traffic congestion and environmental hazards.
The BRTA entrusted with the task of providing registration and fitness certificates to motor vehicles runs drive occasionally against the expired vehicles.
Afia Sultana Moni, a resident of Dhanmondi, who regularly commutes by a minibus from Science Lab to Mouchak Market, said, “The bus staff charge Tk 25 from per passenger for traveling almost two and a half Kilometres. It is an unfair traveling charge,”
Fatima Parvin, a resident of Mohammadpur area, said, “I go to Farmgate from Mohammadpur on a local bus, the condition of which is very derelict, but its charge goes the same as that by the direct bus services.”
“I see the shattered and broken buses during visit to any place of Dhaka city,” said Mohamad Kabir Hossain, a private job-holder in the city.
Recently, Road Transport and Bridges Minister Obaidul Quader at a discussion with leaders of transport owners and workers wondered how so many unfit and rickety vehicles could run on Dhaka roads.
Bangladesh University of Engineering and Technology’s (BUET) Accident Research Institute’s lecturer Shanewaz Hasanat-E-Rabbi said that it takes about half an hour to check the fitness of a single vehicle like bus while the authorities were currently checking fitness by looking at the outside.
SM Salehuddin, former executive director of Dhaka Transport Coordination Board, said that only painting on bodies would not bring any change on roads unless overall repair of buses and competition among buses could be stopped.
Md Nurul Islam, BRTA director (Engineering), said BRTA issues motor vehicle registration and fitness certificates. After taking fitness certificates from BRTA, many public buses are seen plying in the capital without any physical fitness.
Md Matiar Rahman, Director (enforcement) of BRTA, said, “Drive against unfit vehicles in the city is a continuous process, and it will continue.”
