Rickshaws dominate VIP roads

Rickshaws and vans now ply VIP roads in Dhaka city at ease. In fact, all roads in metropolitan areas are virtually under the occupation of rickshaws, vans, push carts and battery-run auto-rickshaws. Though the exact number of these transports is not known, associations of owners and workers say that at least a million rickshaws, vans, push carts and hackney carriages ply city streets.
Quoting dependable sources, a national Bengali daily in a report published recently says that the number of licences issued in favour of these transports is only 88,000. These licences are too old which include nearly 80,000 for rickshaws, 8,000 vans, push carts and hackney carriages. The number of pullers will not be less than 1.5 million. At least a million rickshaws and vans are plying with fake number plates under the blessings of some unscrupulous city corporation staff and policemen.
Selling of fake number plates for rickshaws and vans is a lucrative business involving millions of taka. The daily also reported that all city roads were open to the movement of rickshaws ahead of the 10th parliamentary election held on January 05 last.
The roads are still open to rickshaws. The Dhaka City Corporation issued rickshaw licences for the last time in 1986 and since then no new licence has been issued, nor renewed. Taking advantage of this situation, an organised gang of people is engaged in issuing fake licences for rickshaws and vans. In Dhaka city there are 28 associations of owners and workers of rickshaws. They are controlling the licence business.
 On the other hand, a fresh problem arising out of plying swarms of battery-run rickshaws has increased the risk of road accidents manifold. Battery-run rickshaws are now plying many city streets violating government ban on their movement as the police on duty allow them to do so in exchange of money.
A battery-run rickshaw is more likely to bear greater risk of accidents because of its design and inadequate speed control system. According to two Dhaka City Corporation (DCC) bodies now, the Dhaka Metropolitan Police (DMP) imposed ban on plying this type of rickshaws more than two years ago because these are risky and may cause accident any time. According to an estimate, about 300000 manually-propelled and battery-run rickshaws ply the streets in Dhaka city. Of these, 20% are battery-run rickshaws. The battery-run rickshaws also consume a large volume of electricity every day.
As regard city's overall traffic management, the road users to their dismay, find that with each passing day, tailbacks in Dhaka city are going from bad to worse as measures so far taken by the authorities concerned are quite inadequate to overcome the crisis. The number one problem relating to traffic jam, however, lies in plying of vehicles nearly five times higher than the capacity of roads in the metropolis.
As we told earlier in this column that the wayside parking is largely responsible for acute traffic jam in some areas. Long queues of automobiles are always found parked beside the thoroughfares in peak hours. Despite strong warnings by the authorities concerned and public protests, the illegal parking of vehicles beside the roads continues much to the sufferings of the people.
Strict implementation of the DMP rules can only remove unauthorised parking of vehicles from the streets and pavements. In many cases, a poor trafficman on duty cannot take a wealthy and influential owner to task for illegal parking for the fear of even losing his job.
The higher authority must stand beside the members of law enforcers in streets to strictly enforce DMP rules. It is common sight that overcrowded buses stop in busy intersections to take passengers, and in some places before the trafficman on duty. This intensifies gridlock as well as exposes the passengers running after those buses to serious hazards.
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