Our Correspondent
CHATTOGRAM, July 29: Battery-run rickshaws like Easy-Bike and Tom-Tom ply the roads of the port city of Chattogram in a haphazard fashion, mostly posing risks of accident and hampering smooth movement of other modes of vehicles and pedestrians.
Regardless of the newly-emerged power crisis across the country, a maximum of these vehicles reportedly operate in the city by using pilfered electricity, and this is too to the awareness of the law enforcers.
Easy-Bikes mostly rule the roads of Patenga, Shershah, Bayazid, Chawkbazar, CEPZ, Halishahar, Bandartila, Ehashan Mistrir Haat, Akber Shah, Chandgaon, Karnaphuli Bridge area, Pahartali, Bakalia, Anderkillah, Laldighi and other important neighbourhoods of the city.
Besides, the battery-run rickshaws run illegally on the rural roads of Chattogram, often causing accidents.
These Easy-Bikes and Tom-Toms mostly get their batteries charged from illegal power connections at roadside garages in the city and rural areas.
There are a total of 282 charge stations in the port city and several hundred others of the like in the rural areas of the district to charge up the vehicles.
There are 30 such facilities in Patenga, 18 in Dewanhat, 25 in Pahartali, 22 in Akbershah, 52 in Chandgaon, 25 in Old Chawkbazar and 35 in Karnaphuli Bridge area of the city.
Besides, some garages are also running hidden 'charge stations' by pilfering electricity from roadside poles, aggravating further the possibility of outages.
Total power consumption by the Easy-Bikes and Tom-Toms is around 100 megawatts a day in Chattogram, said sources.
City-dwellers lament that at a time when the authorities are resorting to electricity rationing across the country to avert an energy crisis in Bangladesh, the authorities have neither been able to crack down on these battery-run rickshaws nor could take action against the errant garage owners.
It is learnt, local leaders of the ruling party Awami League and local influential people are mostly owners of these Easy-Bikes and Tom-Toms and 'charge stations'.
So, the police and Power Development Board (PDB) avoid taking any action against them even during the prevailing unusual power situation.
Abdul Karim, a CNG-run Bab-taxi driver, said, Easy-Bike and other batter-run rickshaws are the prime cause of the traffic congestion in Chattogram. Other regular vehicles cannot run on the roads due to them.
Traffic policemen unnecessarily harass the owners and drivers of legal vehicles like Baby-taxi, microbuses and cars but they hardly take any action against illegal vehicles like Easy-Bike.
Chief Engineer of PDB (Chattogram South Zone) Engineer Rejaul Karim said, "We regularly conduct drives against illegal power users and it is a continuous process. If we get information about illegal electricity connections, we take action immediately. We are monitoring the garages which already got licenses from the government. "
Earlier, Chattogram City Corporation took the decision to stop plying of all battery-run rickshaws like Easy-Bike in the city.
nazim07@yahoo.com
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