The communications ministry has given owners one year more to replace some 4,500 CNG auto-rickshaws. The decision came at a meeting with the vehicle owners at the ministry on Tuesday. Following the announcement, the owners withdrew their pre-scheduled 72-hour strike from Thursday, said the ministry officials. The ministry has also taken an initiative to introduce a mechanism for extending fitness validity of the rest 8,500 auto-rickshaws after evaluating recommendations put forth by the Bangladesh University of Engineering and Technology’s mechanical department experts.
Earlier on December 11, the CNG-run auto-rickshaw owners threatened to enforce the strike on December 22-24 pressing for five-point.
The demands include allowing the CNG auto-rickshaws to ply the city roads for 15 years instead of the existing 11 years.
They postponed the strike for three days after a meeting with Bangladesh Road Transport Authority officials on Friday.
Then BRTA officials earlier had said that 4,500 out of about 13,000 CNG-run three-wheelers would not be allowed to ply the city roads from December 31 unless the period of their validity was extended.
In the backdrop of the CNG owners’ demands since May this year, the government engaged experts from the BUET to examine parts of these 4,500 vehicles to determine whether they could ply the streets for a few more years or not.
The experts placed three recommendations, including overhauling of engines every year and changing cylinders and using some parts, for these vehicles to run for four more years.
The communications ministry’s road division secretary, MAN Siddeque, told New Age on Tuesday that the owners would have one more year to replace the 4,500 three-wheelers.
‘We are also trying to implement BUET recommendations for the rest 8,500 autos. That is why we need an agency,’ he said, adding, ‘We are working on the mechanism at present.’
The council convener, Barkat Ullah Bhulu, confirmed New Age of their withdrawing the strike.
Earlier, the authorities initiated four-stroke green CNG auto-rickshaws in the capital in 2002 to decrease air pollution caused by two-stroke auto-rickshaws, said officials.
The authorities gave licenses for the four-stroke CNGs for nine years which were expanded by two more years, they added.
-With New Age input
