The government measures taken to improve highway transport service across the country are failing to make any headway amid scarcity of trained drivers, lack of fitness certification and meagre insurance coverage, sources said.
According to a source at Bangladesh Road Transport Authority (BRTA), the number of skilled drivers is not increasing in comparison with the rising number of vehicles due to manpower shortage of the authority and absence of adequate training institutes.
He said the BRTA is not equipped enough to tackle the growing number of highway transports.
Meanwhile, Senior Vice President of Bangladesh Bus-Truck Owners Association (BBTOA) Babu Ramesh Chandra Talukder said there has been more than 30 per cent increase in the number of highway buses over the last five years and currently over 20,000 buses are plying the inter-district routes.
According to the BBTOA vice president, also managing director of Shyamoli Paribahan Ltd, some 5,000 buses ply every day only from Dhaka to greater Mymensigh, Sylhet, Chittagong and Khulna while about 15,000 buses ply the inter-district routes except Dhaka.
Due to rise in people's mobility the number of buses is also increasing with the availability of air conditioned (A/C) bus service.
The number of skilled drivers is very much poor for the buses plying the highway routes as most of the drivers do not have institutional training and the required academic qualifications.
According to a bus owner, "We are investing money in transport business but we cannot produce skilled drivers which is the BRTA's headache."
He said along with the old transport owners some new investors have in recent years made investment in highway transport business mostly in A/C buses.
Among other problems, he said, a good number of buses do not have proper fitness documents, insurance coverage and other government-required compliance materials for running buses on the highways.
A transport expert at Bangladesh University of Engineering and Technology (BUET) said most of the drivers are ill-paid and that is why educated people do not come to this profession.
He said infrastructure of highways in the country is also not developed up to the expected level for which accidents occur and in many cases it is not the driver's fault but lack of road management and absence of a transport policy are responsible for such mishaps.
The transport expert said it is the government's duty to arrange proper training facilities for the drivers and force them to follow the safety rules for highways to reduce road accidents.
   himelshamsul@gmail.com
BRTA \\\'not well-equipped\\\' to tackle highway transports
Shamsul Huda | Published: December 06, 2014 00:00:00 | Updated: November 30, 2024 06:01:00
Share if you like