Draft road transport law goes to cabinet soon

A draft on the proposed road transport law has been made ready to place before the cabinet soon.
Officials at the Ministry of Road Transport and Bridges (MoRTB) expected that it would be sent to the cabinet by this month.
The proposed road transport act (RTA) will replace the British-old one, aiming to bring disciplines on the street and save thousands of lives every year, they said.
"We have done necessary work and it is now ready to place before the cabinet," said Road Transport and Highways Division Secretary MAN Siddique.
He said the decision to send it to the cabinet was taken at a recent inter-ministerial meeting, after considering the final opinions of the officials concerned who attended the meeting.
MoRTB had taken a move in 2010 to replace the motor vehicle ordinance 1983, which is grossly a duplication of motor vehicle act 1939 that lacks adequate measures against misdeeds on the road.
The ministry had drafted the act in 2011, but faced serious criticism due to absence of provisions to ensure strict punishment against unruly driving and corruption that causes the lives of people threatened and miserable.
In absence of strict law, driving licences were being given indiscriminately while fitness certificates for unfit vehicles were being issued allegedly through violating the laws.
After a long debate, another draft of the proposed law was prepared in 2013 and shared with all the stakeholders, including transport owners and labour leaders who were, however, initially against the provision of strict punishment in the act.
The ministry officials said the draft of the RTA has been finalised after going through changes several times in last three years, after taking opinions from all the stakeholders.
Before finalising the act, the ministry held an inter-ministerial meeting on February 09 as recommended by the cabinet and made necessary corrections, changes and additions mainly in language and words, the secretary told the FE.
He, however, refrained from commenting on the increase or decrease of punishment regarding offences, but said things were done accommodating all opinions received so far.
Sources said the RTA has kept the provision of point-scoring system to penalise offenders and increased the amount of fines significantly.
But the amount will be finalised during the cabinet meeting, said an official.
According to the draft RTA shared on the official website for getting feedback of public, drivers causing a death in a motor vehicle accident are proposed to be sentenced to highest seven years imprisonment and fined Tk15,000 and Tk150,000.
License of a driver may be suspended and confiscated based on the points which will be deducted in each accident and law breaking. In the case of injuries, offending driver may get sentenced to maximum five years and fined Tk 75,000.
Punishments have been listed for driving while using cell phones, head phones, in a drunken state, without a seat belt, for breaking the speed limit, highway codes, signs or signals.
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