Burial ground for vehicles set up to dump clunkers
Friday, 14 May 2010
Munima Sultana
The government has set up the country's first "burial ground" for old vehicles as it plans to launch a fresh crackdown on 20-year-old buses and trucks later this month.
A three-acre land has been penned in at Katchpur outside the capital for dumping the vehicles in a sign that the authorities have finally rolled up their sleeves to rid the city of growing number of clunkers.
"We are giving final touches to the dumping ground," said KM Iftekhar Haider, additional secretary of the Roads and Railways Division (RHD).
Officials said under the motor vehicles laws, buses, minibuses, trucks and pick-ups aged at least 20 years are banned from plying in the capital and other cities as they are deemed unfit at this age.
Previous governments had launched series of crackdowns in the past 13 years to mop up old vehicles, whose number has swollen to 0.10 million in 2010, in an effort to ease traffic jams in the city.
But the drives proved futile due to what the Bangladesh Road Transport Authority (BRTA) says absence of facilities where the vehicles could be dumped.
"We seized thousands of old vehicles during the past drives but could not dump them anywhere. We had no choice but to return the vehicles to the owners after obtaining undertakings that they won't use the vehicles in the capital," Haider said.
But the owners never kept their words as later drives have found. Most of the vehicles came back to the city just months after a crackdown in a different colour, name or shape.
Haider said steep increase in the number of clunkers in city roads is largely to blame for worsening traffic congestion. "Very often these vehicles pass out at the middle of busy roads, leading to hours of jams," he said.
In addition, BRTA says average 175 new vehicles are hitting Dhaka every day, clogging up roads for at least 7.5 hours between eight in the morning and eight in the night.
Haider said the burial ground with a space for 400 vehicles would open on May 15 and a crackdown on old vehicles would follow soon.
"After the dumping ground becomes ready, I am sure we shall be able to kick the old vehicles out of city roads," the additional secretary said.
It is not clear how the dumping ground will operate. But officials hinted that old vehicles would be dismantled at the dumping ground using equipment and then auctioned off to scrappers to free the site again for fresh batch of banned vehicles.
The BRTA statistics show that 0.35 million buses, minibuses, trucks and pickups operate in the city. Of the total, at least 0.10 million vehicles are aged over 20 years.
Authorities had discussed a proposal to dismantle an old vehicle at the spot where it is seized so that it cannot return to the streets. But the idea was found to be untenable.
The government has set up the country's first "burial ground" for old vehicles as it plans to launch a fresh crackdown on 20-year-old buses and trucks later this month.
A three-acre land has been penned in at Katchpur outside the capital for dumping the vehicles in a sign that the authorities have finally rolled up their sleeves to rid the city of growing number of clunkers.
"We are giving final touches to the dumping ground," said KM Iftekhar Haider, additional secretary of the Roads and Railways Division (RHD).
Officials said under the motor vehicles laws, buses, minibuses, trucks and pick-ups aged at least 20 years are banned from plying in the capital and other cities as they are deemed unfit at this age.
Previous governments had launched series of crackdowns in the past 13 years to mop up old vehicles, whose number has swollen to 0.10 million in 2010, in an effort to ease traffic jams in the city.
But the drives proved futile due to what the Bangladesh Road Transport Authority (BRTA) says absence of facilities where the vehicles could be dumped.
"We seized thousands of old vehicles during the past drives but could not dump them anywhere. We had no choice but to return the vehicles to the owners after obtaining undertakings that they won't use the vehicles in the capital," Haider said.
But the owners never kept their words as later drives have found. Most of the vehicles came back to the city just months after a crackdown in a different colour, name or shape.
Haider said steep increase in the number of clunkers in city roads is largely to blame for worsening traffic congestion. "Very often these vehicles pass out at the middle of busy roads, leading to hours of jams," he said.
In addition, BRTA says average 175 new vehicles are hitting Dhaka every day, clogging up roads for at least 7.5 hours between eight in the morning and eight in the night.
Haider said the burial ground with a space for 400 vehicles would open on May 15 and a crackdown on old vehicles would follow soon.
"After the dumping ground becomes ready, I am sure we shall be able to kick the old vehicles out of city roads," the additional secretary said.
It is not clear how the dumping ground will operate. But officials hinted that old vehicles would be dismantled at the dumping ground using equipment and then auctioned off to scrappers to free the site again for fresh batch of banned vehicles.
The BRTA statistics show that 0.35 million buses, minibuses, trucks and pickups operate in the city. Of the total, at least 0.10 million vehicles are aged over 20 years.
Authorities had discussed a proposal to dismantle an old vehicle at the spot where it is seized so that it cannot return to the streets. But the idea was found to be untenable.