Drive against old vehicles: A futile exercise in the making?

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Shahiduzzaman Khan
In the backdrop of a drive against old vehicles on city streets, commuters' movement is being seriously jeopardised since last week. Thousands of commuters wait for hours, yet they fail to get their required transports on various routes of the city. The reason is that the old transports have gone off the roads fearing crackdown. There is no alternative arrangement for commuters who happen to use such transports every day to go to office and return home. Such a scenario is evident at every intersection of the city.
Yet such a drive against unfit motor vehicles turns out to be a futile exercise every year. It begins with loud drum-beating by the authorities concerned. As usual, owners continue to keep their run-down vehicles off the road to avoid being penalised. Yet what they do is that by avoiding crackdown for the whole day, they press their old transports into service at night as they know for sure that there would be no mobile courts beyond working hours.
However, according to reports, the government is now considering taking alternative action plan this year. It is now planning to authorise Dhaka district administration to confiscate rundown vehicles even if they are kept off the road. To get hold of the rundown vehicles, the authorities are even planning to search garages where these vehicles are kept. Reports say magistrates could seize only 15 buses during last four working days. The owners of the private-run vehicles were meanwhile refurbishing their old, dilapidated vehicles to dodge the ongoing drive.
Transport sector in the city is now in a horrible mess. Those who manage to board buses or minibuses find it difficult to get space in the crowded vehicles. Some are left with no choice but to hire CNG-run auto-rickshaws. But the number of buses on the street is minimum forcing many to walk to their destinations. Scarcity of motor vehicles, however, brings fortune for rickshaw and van pullers, many of whom charge almost double the usual fare. Reports say the government wants to get rid of about 15,00 buses and trucks aged over 20 years and regulate another 800,000 vehicles plying the city streets without proper fitness documents through a crackdown. The task is very challenging, indeed.
The government, especially the Bangladesh Road Transport Corporation (BRTC), should have deployed additional buses on city routes to address the emerging situation. It was also important to convince the private transport owners to keep the momentum of daily commuting for the citizens. The point here is that while a drive against dilapidated vehicles is a necessity, it is important that the probable void created by a sudden action against such vehicles is avoided or minimised as much as possible under the given circumstances.
However, the authorities should go for a phase-wise programme that might allow them as well as private transport owners' time to replace the vehicles that are put out of operation. That is one way of averting the chaos which might otherwise be the result of any other kind of action. Also, the drive against old vehicles must not be half-hearted. It has been witnessed that the law-enforcing agencies entrusted with the drive create a mess on the roads by stopping the cars indiscriminately, good ones included. Huge traffic jam is witnessed where a magistrate sits due to this. Unholy negotiation with the drivers and the owners to get rid of penalisation is also a common scenario at every point. There should be no repeat of the old inconclusive exercise any more.
There is another point to ponder. It is not merely dilapidated vehicles that should be the purpose of the drive, but an altogether pragmatic measure aimed at ensuring skilled, trained drivers to remain behind the wheels of public transports. Their knowledge of road regulations, their behaviour with passengers as also with other road users, et cetera, must be part of the show. Unfortunately, men behind the wheels of public transports with fake licences are thousands in number. Every year, their number is swelling. A section of dishonest officials and employees in the Bangladesh Road Transport Authority (BRTA) are responsible for issuing fake driving licences and fitness certificates to the old and dilapidated vehicles.
Dhaka city or any other big cities in the country are not the abodes of only rich people. Rather mostly middle class or poor people live there. Therefore, any decision to ban old vehicles will inevitably harm the lives of majority of these people. What the government can do is to give very strong emphasis on fitness. With perfect fitness, there is no problem with many of the old cars. There are even vehicles of the '80s which are rendering very efficient service due to better maintenance.
If the government takes a rigid stand on fitness of the vehicles people will then be serious about proper maintenance of their transports. It is important that the BRTA should be strict on fitness and punish those who break traffic rules. This is expected to improve the city's fragile traffic system. The government needs to take a coordinated move to improve overall traffic system rather than chop off its head to relieve headache. That is what the middle class and poorer section of the society want from the government. szkhan@dhaka.net