The inauguration of the country's first automatic vehicle inspection centre (VIC) at the Bangladesh Road Transport Authority's Mirpur office on Thursday has the potential to be a milestone achievement in terms of the BRTA's capability. This infrastructural addition to the outmoded fitness testing system can be a step in the right direction provided that it is made good use of. The VIC has a capacity to test as many as 70 vehicles' fitness an hour or around 600 vehicles a day. Evidently, this fitness test facility comes up on the eve of the ---just four days before ---observance of the National Road Safety Day on October 22 next.
When the country's management of the transport sector is conspicuous more by chaos, anarchy and corruption all around, how much the lone VIC can deliver is questionable. Although the authorities have a plan to set up VICs outside of Dhaka, there is no specific date for this to happen. Reportedly, the World Bank will finance the installation of VICs in Noakhali, Cumilla, Faridpur and Mymensingh and the government will set up such facilities at Ekuria of Dhaka, Khulna, Rajshahi and Chattogram. The name of two divisions---Barishal and Sylhet ---are missing from the initiative.
Presently, though, it seems the authorities' concentration is on the capital city. Sure enough, with the inauguration of the second segment of the metro rail from Agargaon to Motijheel by the end of this month, commuting will ease off for the capital city's inhabitants living close to its line. This cannot be said about the elevated expressway because it has till now remained an exclusive route for the more privileged than the masses. So, there is reason to think that the chaos and anarchy reigning supreme on the Dhaka city's roads will not disappear overnight following the operation of the metro rail up to Motijheel.
An overwhelming majority of the commuters will have to undergo the same daily ordeal of commuting on Dhaka roads, which has recently slid into the worst nightmarish experience for them. This time the authorities' apparent focus is on fitness test of vehicles. But the irony is that of the total 5,661,418 registered vehicles, 530,000 vehicles are either outdated or without fitness, according to the BRTA. It also claims that of these unfit and date expired vehicles, 30 per cent is not in operation. But different organisations keeping tab on road safety and transport disagree with the figure of vehicles not road-worthy and at the end of their active service life. They are of the opinion that the number would be much higher.
Even the conservative official estimate is an open admission of the fact that the Road Transport Act 2018 is yet to get implemented. Movement of vehicles without fitness certificate is a punishable offence under the act. In some of the worst road accidents involving buses in recent times, the inquiry reports have come up with the revelation that either the drivers had no driving licences or the vehicles had no route permission or lacked the fitness certificate. This again is a clear indication that those in charge of carrying out regular check either neglect their duty or allow such breach of legal provisions in exchange for unearned income.
Transport workers protested many of the provisions of the Road Transport Act 2018 right from the beginning, delaying the passage of the draft in parliament. Then the authorities have backed out of its avowed plan to send buses older than 20 years and trucks in service beyond 25 years to junk yards. However, they readily admit that the dilapidated public buses and reckless driving are the prime causes of accidents. Indeed, one does not have to be a transport aficionado or expert to know that the majority of public buses running on roads of the capital city are road-unworthy. Disfigured, with worn-out paints, broken windows, dirty and rickety seats and bumpers ---some of those hanging precariously, the ramshackle buses are an eye sore, in fact a disgrace to the status of the country's capital.
This can continue only because not enough initiative is taken to do away with the maladministration of the system. Why were the auto traffic signals rendered inoperative, pray, in whose interest? Why cannot the much awaited Road Transport Act be implemented at least step by step? There is no guarantee vehicles ---public buses to be precise---can be made to appear for fitness test at the Mirpur VIC. Somehow the transport workers and the far stronger players backing them from behind will frustrate any such move. More importantly, if no action is taken to get the vehicles without fitness certificate and beyond their life span off the roads, what is the use of fitness test? Maybe, it will open another avenue for lining the pockets of dishonest and corrupt elements in the system.
But the overriding need is to take such dangerous and hazardous ---both in terms of safety of life and environment ---vehicles belching out black smoke off the road. That Dhaka has earned the infamy of the most polluted city, in reference to poisonous particulates and dust as well as excessive sound, in the world is not for nothing. In this context, the rebuff the BRTC has received from the Planning Commission (PC) for the former's initiative to procure 100 electric buses from India under the Indian Line of Credit (LoC) programme is indeed a setback. The PC has turned down the proposal because it was submitted without the loan confirmation. However about the merit of this move to switch over to the eco-friendly electric vehicles there is no doubt. This could be the foundation of the country's journey on a pollution-free transportation course.
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