Passenger鈥檚 rights activists on Monday demanded immediate formation of guidelines for the proper management and control on the movement of battery-run rickshaws and other small vehicles.
At a press conference they also said that if these vehicles are brought under registration and the drivers are provided with driving licences then the government could earn a huge amount of revenue.
Passenger Welfare Association of Bangladesh organised the event at Dhaka Reporter鈥檚 Unity in the capital, said a press release issued by the association.
The PWAB secretary general Mozammel Hoque Chowdhury said that the number of battery-run rickshaws has been increasing since 2016 which is now around 40 lakh.
As the rickshaws can be turned into battery-run rickshaws easily at the local garages and drivers can run these rickshaws amid lax monitoring, the number of these rickshaws is increasing, he said.聽
He alleged that around Tk聽40,000 crore was extorted annually from these rickshaw drivers by the then Awami League leaders, including lawmakers and ministers.
If, Mozammel continued, the city corporations, municipalities and upazila parishads across the country started to give registration to these vehicles and cheaper driving licence could be provided to the drivers then the government could earn around Tk聽5,000 crore from this sector.
He also alleged that as several lakh of unskilled drivers are behind the steering, these vehicles are causing huge risks of road accident.
According to the association, the number of accidents involved with motorcycle, battery-run rickshaws, three-wheeler and easy bikes is increasing.
He said that in 2021 the then government had drafted a guideline to control these vehicles which was not approved yet for facilitating India to export CNG-run auto-rickshaws, Mahindras, auto-tempos, and human haulers in Bangladesh.
The association urged the government to form immediately the guidelines for proper management and control of the three-wheeler and motor vehicles of same category, registration of these rickshaws after proper modification, fixing fare rates and the number of these vehicles based on areas, fundamental training for these drivers, GPS-tracking of these rickshaws, strict ban on easy bikes, battery-run rickshaws and CNG-run auto-rickshaws on national highways, and import of the spare parts and machineries of battery-run rickshaws.
Dhaka University鈥檚 mass communication and journalism department professor Robaet Ferdous and Rickshaw-Battery Rickshaw-Van and Easy Bike Sangram Parishad convener Khalequzzaman Lipon gave speech among others in the conference.
