Roads remain unsafe despite road transport act

Source : Police Headquarter & BRTA
Source : Police Headquarter & BRTA

Disorder has increased on the roads after the enactment of the road safety act. The number of drivers applying for new licences or renewal of driving licences has dropped rather than increased. Vehicles without fitness have increased in number and there has been a decrease in fines and penalties for violations of the rules.

A year after it was passed in the parliament, the road transport act came into effect on 1 November last year. However, this law drawn up following pressure from students’ protest remains essentially ineffective. It has had no impact on the transport sector.

Last November, relenting to pressure from the transport owners and workers, the government suspended certain clauses regarding fitness certificates and drivers’ licences till June this year. All required licences and documents for the vehicles and drivers are to be updated within this period. The transport owners and workers have been given all sorts of facilities such as exemption of fines and simplification of the official procedures.

These special facilities provided to the transport owners and workers will end within four months and yet the ministry is yet to draw up rules and regulations pertaining to the law. The police and other law enforcement agencies are also not prepared as yet for the application of the law.

A task force, headed by the home minister, was formed last September with the objective of restoring order to the roads. Speaking to Prothom Alo on Wednesday, the home minister Asaduzzaman Khan said, full-fledged application of the law will begin from June. Fines and penalties have decreased as the transport owners and workers have been given time till June. If they do not bring their papers up to date by then, they will be fined heavily. They are aware of that.

As to why there are not many applications for licences, the minister said that perhaps it was because BRTA was not being able to provide licence cards.

Still no fitness
Under the new road safety act, a six month prison sentence or a Tk 25,000 fine or both will be imposed for vehicles without fitness certificates. And a Tk 10,000 fine will be imposed for expired tax tokens.

Following protests from the transport owners and workers, the home minister held meetings with them on 20 and 23 November. At the meetings, the transport owners and workers asked for a time extension to renew their fitness certificates, tax tokens and route permits. They were given up till June to update these papers. On 20 January this year, the road transport ministry even exempted them from paying fines for renewing the fitness certificates, tax tokens and licences.

Over the last four months, the number of vehicles on the roads without fitness has increased. According to the Bangladesh Road Transport Authority (BRTA), till 31 October last year, before the road act came into effect, there were 403,530 vehicles without fitness on the roads. Till 24 February this year, the number of such vehicles without fitness rose to 443,432. That means there was an increase of 39,899 unfit vehicles plying the streets.

Least bothered about licences
According to BRTA, there are 4.35 million motor vehicles in the country. And the number of drivers stands at around 2.8 million. That means there are no drivers for around 1.5 million vehicles. Drivers of light vehicles are driving heavy vehicles like buses and trucks, some even without any licence. Under the new law, this violation faces a six-month prison term of a Tk 25,000 fine or both and so the transport owners and workers demanded that no cases in this regard be filed.

At the meeting with the home minister, the clause related to licences was relaxed till June this year. Following lack of response even to this time extension, the road transport minister further relaxed the rules so that drivers with one years’ experience could get license for light, medium and heavy vehicles. Yet the law requires three years’ experience for driving medium vehicles and five years for heavy vehicles.

According the police headquarters, last October 352,000 transport related cases were filed in October last year. Around Tk 160 million was recovered in fines. After the road safety act was imposed, 60,000 cases were filed and Tk 45 million was collected in fines. In December the number of cases dropped to only 35,000 and fines amounted to only Tk 13.9 million.

Deaths and accidents on the road rise
Under pressure from protesting students, on 9 September 2018 the parliament passed the new road transport act. However, there has been a rise in road accidents and deaths despite this law coming into effect.

Nirapad Sarak Chai, the non-government organisation working for road safety, reports that 5,227 persons lost their lives in road accidents in 2019. This has been 4439 in 2018. That shows an almost 16 per cent rise in deaths caused by road accidents.

Transport specialist Shamsul Huq told Prothom Alo that it will be impossible to emerge from the present predicament of the roads unless the government gives full attention to the matter. However, there are no signs of the government taking the matter up with full attention. If the government takes a firm stand, the transport owners and workers take up a movement. If the government relents, there is disorder on the roads again. The government is caught up in this vortex.

Shamsul Huq went on to say, all strata of society are concerned about the state of the transport sector. The new law with its strict provisions had given the people some hope, but with the authorities relenting to pressure from the transport owners and workers, the hope has disappeared. The government needed to take up a stern political stance.

* This report has been rewritten in English by Ayesha Kabir.