The communications ministry is scheduled to make decision today over amending the Taxicab Service Guidelines of 2010 to remove the bottlenecks in
pressing new cabs on the streets of Dhaka, Chittagong and Sylhet.
Earlier on April 13, the ministry had decided to amend only one clause of the guidelines which requires a taxicab company to have a fleet of at least 1,000 cabs.
On April 15, the Bangladesh Road Transport Authority sent another proposal to the ministry for amending some other clauses of the guideline.
BRTA made the decision to relax the guidelines as only three companies which had applied seeking permission in June and October to press new cabs in Dhaka city and then disqualified as none of them could fulfil the difficult conditions laid down in the guidelines.
On June 13, 2012 the BRTA invited applications for giving permission to press 4,740 air-conditioned and non-air-conditioned taxicabs on the streets of Dhaka city and adjacent areas including Narayanganj, Savar, Tongi, Munsiganj, Dohar, Mawa, Joydevpur interjection to Gazipur and Aricha/Paturai areas in Manikganj.
At that time, BRTA had also invited applications to give permission to interested companies to press 320 cabs which would operate in Chittagong city and also in the seaside resort town of Cox’s Bazaar, and 200 cabs for Sylhet city.
In its advertisement published by the media BRTA had said it would give permission to a maximum of five companies to run taxicabs in the three cities.
The April 15 letter cited that three companies — Nofel Motors Limited, Bangladesh Environmental Vehicle Company Limited and National Car Limited — which had sent their applications failed to fulfil the conditions laid down in the guidelines.
In the letter, the BRTA chairman urged the ministry to amend the guideline’s Section 1’s Clause 7, Clause 11, and Clause 15 and Section 2’ Clause 2.
Section 1’s Clause 7 says that from now on any
public or private limited company, which has a minimum Tk 2.5 crore paid up capital, can import taxicab.
Clause 11 says that a company must have a control room fitted with radio telephone link, cell phone and Global Positioning System for continuous communication between the cabs and the operating company.
Clause 15 says that a company must have an appropriate training structure for providing regular training to its drivers on traffic laws and decent behaviour with passengers.
Section 2’s Clause 2 says that the taxicab cannot be more than three years old.
As Tk 2.5 crore paid up capital and radio telephone link are very expensive structures, these clauses should be relaxed requiring a cab company to have Tk 50 lakh PUC and only GPS for tracking its taxis, it says.
It says that it is not realistic that a company must have a training structure before getting any permission from BRTA, so the clause should be relaxed requiring a cab company to set up the structure after getting permission.
As Section 2’s Clause 2 is contradictory with the existing import policy the clause should be amended as – a company cannot import any taxicab which is three years old.
BRTA director (engineering) Mohammad Saiful Hoque told New Age
that a meeting was scheduled to be held at the communications ministry on Tuesday while decisions would be taken on these clauses.
‘After that we would
go for further initiatives about plying new taxicabs in different cities,’ he
added.
-with New Age input
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