Facelift of transports ignores dangers

If old habits die hard, it is flagrantly displayed in the country's transport sector. Operators of both road transports and water vessels seem to be engaged in a stiff competition to pass their ramshackle ones as fit for journeys. Only more so when the rush of passengers is the heaviest ahead of festivals like the Eids. For a few days, the media have been focusing on rundown launches now getting a facelift at the dockyard in Keraniganj on the other side of the Buriganga. The intention is clear: just to remind all concerned of the danger such intrigues pose to the lives of thousands of passengers travelling home on the occasion of the Eid-ul Fitr. Reports are quite clear about the equation between the owners of such vessels and the regulators. Or else, it should not be a difficult task to visit the dockyards and take punitive action against those who are skirting around the legal compliance and putting people's lives at risk.
Facelift of vessels or vehicles is no substitute for their fitness. Actually regular fitness tests of transports determine their road- or water-worthiness. Those vessels and vehicles left to rust for the rest of the year cannot suddenly turn fit for operation with a fresh coat of paint or even some mechanical tinkering. That exactly is happening at the Keraniganj docks and under repair sheds of vehicles all across the country. Now is the time for the authorities to get tough and stringently enforce laws to keep water vessels and vehicles off the water routes and roads. There is no point relaxing the regulations and inviting tragedies like the one involving a launch named Pinak-2 last year and many such ones in the years before.
Mad rush during the Eid is fraught with danger on its own because many people throw caution into the wind and travel in so precarious a manner they would not do at any other time. One reason is certainly the scarcity of vehicles and vessels. People all over the world face the same crisis but some countries do manage it appreciably, others are found running out of ideas. It is better to explore different options and at the same time study the different innovative methods different countries follow to deal with such situations. The government-controlled Bangladesh Road Transport Corporation (BRTC) can perhaps play a positive role in so far as readying its fleet is concerned. Keeping an eye on the Eid rush, it can gear up its repair job in order to press more vehicles on roads.
In case of water vessels, though, the scope for such manoeuvring is limited. The fact that unregistered launches do not use the designated launch terminals in order to pick up and drop passengers only points to the absence of monitoring and supervision. This is even more dangerous because the whole issue conspires for man-made disasters. Clearly, there is no alternative to enforcement of strict regulations. This done, some improvement then can perhaps be brought about by reducing time for docking and leaving from terminals. Also, passengers using short distances for launch journey can be discouraged to take water routes at rush hours before and immediately after the Eid.