Drive against unfit vehicles from today

20-25 years old buses, minibuses to be phased out of city
The government launches a drive from this morning to remove unfit and unregistered vehicles from city streets in efforts to improve traffic situation and prevent road accidents.
Sixteen mobile courts, each headed by an executive magistrate, will carry out the crackdown at different points of the city mainly against 1,446 buses, 8,125 trucks and 2,365 minibuses deemed to be unfit as per the official statistics.
They will also clamp down on the drivers possessing fake licences.
Earlier on June 24, the communications ministry officials and transport owners decided to remove 20-year-old buses and minibuses and 25-year-old trucks from the city.
Transport crisis during rush hours every day is expected to increase further as the owners would not bring their rundown vehicles to the streets during the drive.
Similar drives were taken in the past but to little avail as most of the outdated vehicles returned to the city streets immediately after the drives.
Everytime such action was taken, general people became victims of the scarcity of buses and it often forced them pay high fare to manage other modes of transport.
Corrupt officers of Bangladesh Road Transport Authority (BRTA) who issue licences and give fitness certificates taking bribes are primarily responsible for the present traffic situation and the frequency of road accidents.
Police also contribute to the deterioration of the traffic situation by allowing the outdated vehicles ply across the city in exchange for money.
The drive is being carried out while the communications ministry is planning to buy 700 passenger buses including 200 double-decker ones from India, China and Korea in the next one year.
“We have already bought 100 buses from Korea and those are already running on the streets. Plans to buy more buses to replace the unfit ones are at the final stage,” said Communications Minister Syed Abul Hossain yesterday.
He said the mobile courts will carry out the drive hiring vehicles from Rent-A-Car, instead of requisitioning public private transport.
The minister also said the transport owners pledged not to bring their unfit vehicles to the streets.
“Despite that the drive will continue to seize such vehicles, if found on the streets” he added.
Chairman of BRTA Ayubur Rahman Khan said the drive would be successful this time as the owners assured them of extending full cooperation.
He also said the drive would help bring discipline in the vehicular movements on roads.
Khandaker Enayet Hossain, secretary general of Dhaka Sarak and Paribahan Owners’ Association, said they would not run old buses and trucks in line with the government’s decision.
Asked whether the old vehicles would come back after the drive concludes as it happened earlier, the transport leader said the situation would be different this time.