Allow motorbikes on highways for Eid home going: RSF

The Road Safety Foundation has aired its concerns that the government's ban on motorcycles on highways during Eid-ul-Azha will augment woes of Eid holidaymakers.
The foundation has called upon the authorities concerned to allow use of motorbikes having valid license for long-haul travelling as its complete ban on highways ahead of the Eid is likely to increase sufferings of many homegoers.
The Roads and Highways Department of the Ministry of Road Transport and Bridges on July 3 2022 took a decision to ban motorbikes on highways or plying of the two-wheelers on long-haul routes and bridges for seven days, before and after Eid-ul-Azha.
A statement signed by RSF Chairman Professor Al Mahbub Uddin Ahmed and Executive Director Saidur Rahman said absence of adequate public transports has forced the people to look for motorcycles.
Instead of taking measures to address ongoing indiscipline and mismanagement in the public transport, irrational demand of private bus owners is being fulfilled by not even expanding the state-owned BRTC bus services for the homegoers, it noted.
Although the chairman and the executive director in the statement admitted that motorbikes cannot be an alternative mode of public transport and it is risky in the highways for long route journey, but they said that 70 per cent of the country's registered vehicles are motorcycle and many people now rely on the two-wheelers for travelling on highways ahead of the Eid in absence of other modes of transport.

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