Unauthorised three-wheelers outnumber authorised vehicles

The number of ‘unauthorised’ three-wheelers has surpassed legal vehicles in the country. There are currently around 6.2 million authorised vehicles while the number of government-declared unauthorised vehicles is around 7 million.

Only 2 per cent of authorised vehicles are mass transport including bus and mini-bus. Such dearth of public transport has contributed to increase of faulty and batter-run and engine-run rickshaws in Dhaka and elsewhere in the country.

The government cannot remove these unauthorised vehicles from streets despite recurrent decisions and directives. As a result these faulty vehicles are increasing the number of accidents.

Last Tuesday, the High Court ordered to ban or imposed restrictions on the movement of battery-powered auto-rickshaws on the roads of Dhaka metropolitan area within three days.

This order has been given to the persons concerned including home secretary, inspector general of police, deputy commissioner of Dhaka, administrators of the two city corporations and Dhaka Metropolitan Police commissioner.

On that night, a student named Afsana Karim was killed by a battery-operated auto-rickshaw in Jahangirnagar University. Angry students protested the death of their fellow student.

According to Road Safety Foundation, motorcycle accidents are behind the highest number of fatalities in the country followed by three-wheelers. A total of 5598 were killed in road accidents between January and September this year.

Of the victims, 1924 were motorcycle riders, accounting for 34.36 per cent of the total fatalities. Besides, 1097 died in accident involving three-wheelers including CNG-run autorickshaw, easy bike, nosimon and auto van. These vehicles are illegal as the government does not authorize these vehicles.

When asked, road transport and highways division secretary Ehsanul Haque told Prothom Alo that that they have not yet received the court order. A decision will be made on what to do next after receipt of the order.

There is no data on the number of battery-run auto-rickshaws and other illegal three-wheelers in any government department. However, in several meetings of the road transport ministry around 2010, the number of unauthorized three-wheeler vehicles was mentioned as one million.

According to BRTA, passenger rights organisations, the police and other stakeholders, over six million unauthorised three-wheelers are currently operating in the country. Out of this there are about five million vehicles outside Dhaka and there are 1.2 million to 1.5 million battery-run and machine-run rickshaws in Dhaka.

Bangladesh University of Engineering Technology’s (BUET) professor of Md Hadiuzzaman said these three-wheelers are structurally and mechanically faulty.

He told Prothom Alo that operation of such faulty vehicles is certainly risky. But these vehicles cannot suddenly be banned since livelihood of huge number of people is involved with these vehicles.

He recommended these vehicles are brought under regulations and can be improved technically. There must be a detailed plan on operation of these vehicles.

Bangladesh Road Transport Authority (BRTA) issues registration to 20 types of vehicles. The number of registered vehicles is 6.2 million till October. Of them, only 82,000 are bus-minibus, the main mode of public transport accounting for 1.35 per cent of the total registered vehicles. Among the three-wheelers, BRTA only gives registration to auto rickshaw and auto tempo. The number of these two types of vehicles is around 342,000.

Apart from registered vehicles, around six to seven million light three-wheel vehicles are operating in the country. The government deems these as illegal vehicles. These illegal vehicles include Nosimon, Korimon, Alamsadhu, Bhotbhoti, Easy Bike and Pakhi. The latest edition in this type is battery-powered rickshaw.

These unregistered vehicles are popular among common people especially in rural areas. The government and courts imposed a ban on these vehicles recurrently but the initiatives faltered.

Former road transport and bridges minister Obaidul Quader on several occasions of his 12-year span in the ministry publicly said local influential people or politicians are behind plying of these unauthorised vehicles. He attributed this as a reason for failure to remove these vehicles from the streets.

Drivers and owners of these vehicles are to pay a huge amount of extortion to keep these operational. Police and politicians get a portion of the extortion. Awami League leaders and activists had control of the extortion of this sector for the last 15 and half years.

Around 2010, former mayor AHM Khairuzzaman Liton first approved the operation of battery-powered auto rickshaws in the Rajshahi city corporation area. Apart from Rajshahi, public representatives in some pourashavas and union parishad areas also authorised some three-wheelers. They did not do any technical survey before approving these vehicles.

The then Awami League government decided not to allow import, assemble and operation of battery-run auto rickshaw around 2010 due to power shortage. But the decision could not be implemented.

Later, the government took initiative to approve these locally manufactured vehicles on the rationale of protecting the livelihood of people. It was decided that the number of vehicles per area would also be fixed on condition of improvement of technical standards.

The ministry also prepared a draft guideline titled "Three-wheelers and Similar Motor Vehicles' Proper Management and Control Guideline-2021". The ministry uploaded the draft on its website seeking public opinions for a month. However, the initiative faltered too.

An inter-ministerial meeting around 2013 decided to improve the technical aspects without banning easy bikes. As easy bikes consume a lot of power, a decision was made to bring it under solar power. But this plan faltered too.

The then road transport and bridges minister Obaidul Quader on 15 May in a meeting of the ministry directed banning battery-run auto rickshaws in Dhaka. In protest against this decision, the drivers of these vehicles blocked Agargaon and Mirpur-10 in the capital, carrying out vandalism and arson. Later on 20 May, the then prime minister Sheikh Hasina scrapped the decision at a cabinet meeting on 20 May keeping in mind the livelihood of people involved.

BRTA officials said the streets of the country got flooded with these illegal vehicles following the decision of Sheikh Hasina. The battery-run auto rickshaw would operate on the alleyways once but now it plies freely on the main roads and highways.

BUET professor Hadiuzzaman said that it would have been better if the illegal three-wheelers could be banned at the beginning. Now many local politicians are involved with these businesses. So it now requires a long-term plan.