BRTA drive creates public transport scarcity in city

An official drive against the unfit vehicles drove the ramshackle transports off the city roads on Monday, leaving the commuters in a quandary.     
Especially, office-goers and students suddenly saw themselves in a state of perplexity in the morning.         
Bangladesh Road Transport Authority (BRTA) kicked off the crackdown on the unfit vehicles across the country on Monday morning - incidentally, in the wake of fatal traffic mishaps on the roads and highways.
The avowed aim of the government agency is to ensure a safe traffic system by scrapping the damaged, paperless and illegal vehicles.
During the drive, a number of passengers were seen hanging like bats from gate handles of a few buses and minibuses, particularly on the routes usually studded with dilapidated vehicles, witnesses said.       
"I'm waiting for 45 minutes on the queue, but yet to get a bus to go to my office at Motijheel," said Bazlur Rahman, a banker, at Pallabi bus-stoppage at 7:50am.
"All the buses and human-haulers are parked on the roadside. The owners have suspended their trips towards the city for fear of getting caught," he told the FE.
While visiting Mirpur area, this correspondent saw hundreds of buses, pickups, human-haulers and other motorised vehicles parked on the roadside between Mirpur-11 and Mirpur-12 stoppages in the morning.
Taking the advantage of limited bus movement, auto-rickshaw and rickshaw drivers charged extra fares from the passengers, especially those who had no option but to reach their offices and destinations at any cost.
In a reversal of the scenes the same buses and other vehicles made a comeback in the afternoon.
The city streets again turned into a sea of motorized vehicles like the previous days, as the special drive ended at noon.
"A much-cherished solution, thus, eludes the city-dwellers in the absence of alternative transport arrangements," said many observers of the first day's drive.                
BRTA claimed nearly 33 per cent of the registered 2.2 million motorised vehicles run without any fitness certificate in the country.
Motin Hawlader, the owner of a bus on Mirpur-Motijheel route, told the FE that he did not start trip Monday out of fear, as BRTA launched drive against unfit vehicles.
"I have three buses. Two of them are fit on the road and anther one is unfit. But I have suspended their operation, fearing harassment by the government people on the road," he said.
A director of Shikor Paribahan on the same route said they stopped trips of most of their buses due to the drive.
According to his statement, many of their buses have expired 20 years of age and some of them have not got legal documents for plying the roads.
Farhana Rahman, an official of a private company at Banani, said she faced severe trouble on the road when she was trying to get into a bus at Abdullahpur stoppage for going to office.
"I was late one and a half hours to reach my office. I was fortunate after one-hour struggling on the road to get a bus in the morning," she added while being worried about returning home in the evening.
Many passengers at different points, including Mirpur-1, Kolyanpur, Mohammadpur, Jatrabari, Uttara, Rampura and Badda, claimed that they saw few buses and auto-rickshaws plying the city roads in the morning.
The sudden disappearance of the unfit public transports resulted in untold sufferings on their way to office.
Deputy commissioner traffic (east) Md Mainul Hasan told the FE that they strengthened their drive against the unfit and illegal vehicles on instructions from the government.
BRTA chairman Md Nazrul Islam said they assigned four special mobile courts at four points in the capital to conduct drive against the unfit vehicles and drivers.
"The Dhaka district administration also engaged three mobile teams with magistrates to track the unfit vehicles and their drivers in the capital city on Monday. Besides, all the district administrations and police across the country also started special drives against the unfit vehicles."
Nearly 100 cases were filed on Monday and busses dumped due to their dilapidated condition, he told the FE.
Mr Nazrul said the drive will continue, as many of the vehicles across the country have been plying without proper document and fitness.
When asked about the public sufferings, the BRTA chairman said although there was some shortage of vehicles in the morning, it was over in the afternoon.
"In the short-term people might face sufferings due to the drive. But in the long run it will bring good results ensuring safe journey of the passengers," he added.
Experts questioned the fitness of those transports, mostly buses and trucks, which received BRTA fitness certificates by not following rules and regulations, and run on the streets in a very bad condition.
Dilapidated buses and trucks which cause accident, damage of road for overturning losing control over wheels and traffic jam being parked in the middle of the road will also be off during the drive, the BRTA officials said.

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