Only 41 BRTA inspectors to examine more than 15 lakh vehicles
Worn out public vehicles are plying on city streets with gusto, owing to a palpable lack of parity between the number of such vehicles and that of transport inspectors. Also, an attempt to outsource vehicle fitness certificates through motor workshops has hit bureaucratic hurdles, sources said.
In July last year, the Bangladesh Road Transport Authority (BRTA) decided to outsource vehicle fitness certificates through BRTA-licensed motor workshops across the country, as there are only 41 BRTA inspectors to examine the fitness of more than 15 lakh vehicles in Bangladesh. The decision was expected to add some semblance of respectability to fitness tests and curb allegations of corruption in this regard.
In February this year, the BRTA issued a circular, asking all motor workshop owners to get their workshops registered with the transport authority. The circular also said that after registration, a special BRTA committee would inspect the workshops and give them eligibility certificates for issuing vehicle fitness certificate.
The owners of motor workshops, however, demanded that the special committee have representatives from the Bangladesh Automobile Workshop Owners’ Association (BAWOA).
BAWOA president M Belayet Hossain told The Independent that since July last year, the association has been cooperating with the BRTA. “We attended every BRTA meeting. We even gave the transport authority a list of the motor workshops listed with the association. We were told that the selection committee would have a representative from the BAWOA, but the circular issued in February didn’t mention any such thing,” he said.
He added that the association had asked the BRTA to re-issue the circular with the provision for a BAWOA representative in the committee.
Saiful Haque, BRTA director of engineering, said the transport regulator has sent a letter to the communication ministry to approve the representation of BAWOA in the selection committee. “We haven’t received the approval yet,” he added.
Admitting that a large number of old and faulty buses are plying on the road, Haque said only 282 officials and 41 inspectors in 62 circle offices across the country are not enough to handle the job of issuing fitness certificates.
Before the ICC Cricket World Cup 2011 kicked off, the authorities, including the BRTA and the traffic division of the Dhaka Metropolitan Police (DMP), had conducted several drives to get rid of worn out vehicles, he noted. But the old and faulty buses came back on the road after the World Cup, he said.
Haque blamed the bottleneck in issuing and checking fitness certificates for the re-emergence of these vehicles. “The BRTA provides the fitness certificate for a particular vehicle for one year and asks its owner to come back to re-issue the certificate after the end of the term. But about 60 per cent of bus and minibus owners do not follow the directive,” he added.
He said that as per the new rule of issuing fitness certificates, commercial vehicle owners need to pay the income tax on their vehicles as Advanced Income Tax (AIT) and they also need to submit the certificate of their last paid AIT, along with their tax identification number (TIN) certificates.
As most of these buses have multiple owners, the transport regulator has not devised an efficient way of checking the TIN number while issuing fitness certificates, he added. He noted that most owners also do not like to go through the hassles of lengthy paperwork.
Haque said the BRTA has amended Rule 70 of the Motor Vehicle Ordinance, 1983, and included sub-section 70A, stating that the “licensing and registration of motor workshops should be given by the transport regulator, in accordance with the existing number of vehicles”, to resolve the problem.
He, however, mentioned that every motor workshop would not be given the power to conduct fitness tests for vehicles. “First, the BRTA will issue licences and registrations to motor workshops as per their capacity and compatibility,” he added.
Motor workshops will be categorised into three sections: A, B and C. “A grade workshops will need the capacity to check the fitness of heavy vehicles, including bus, truck, lorry and minibus. B grade workshops will need the capacity to check SUVs and Sedan cars, and grade C workshop will require the capacity to check motor-cycles and auto-rickshaws,” he said.
The BRTA director said the motor workshops must have enough space to accommodate at least five vehicles of the type for which they would be given the power to conduct fitness tests. “Motor workshops will be categorised and given the mandate of checking fitness, only after the transport regulator becomes certain of their capacity. Also, these workshops must possess sufficient machinery for checking the fitness of motor parts and enough space to conduct test runs. After the communication ministry shows the green light, we’ll re-issue the circular and start inspecting the workshops,” he added.
Courtesy of The Independent
