BRTA to introduce smart card against driving license to check fraudulence

Bangladesh Road Transport Authority (BRTA) will introduce smart card from July to check issuance of fake driving licenses deemed as a major cause of road accidents killing over four thousand people annually in the country, officials said in the city Wednesday, reports BSS. The new licensing system will have some security features like hologram and Optical Variation Image (OVI) so that none can make any duplicate license by printing the original one. BRTA Chairman Ayubur Rahman Khan told the news agency that a five-year project styled 'High Security Driving License Card' involving Tk 350 million (35 crore) has been taken up. Under the project, he said smart card having memory chip would be introduced for preserving biography of drivers. Initially 2,000 police personnel would be provided with barcode readers so that they can examine driving licenses. Khan described the earlier licensing system as time-consuming and said clients' harassment could be reduced to a large extent once the automated method is introduced. The new automated licensing system would be more secured and updated from time to time, he said. The BRTA officials said the country has only 45 driving training schools. The number of skilled drivers could not be increased due to shortage of quality training schools. Besides, most of the drivers who receive training from false and unauthorized driving schools are responsible for frequent road accidents. According to BRTA data, the country has 15,04,897 registered vehicles of which 7,92,933 are motorcycles. The number of authorized driving licenses is 9,82,475.