The menace of three-wheelers swarming the highways, in outright violation of repeated bans, is getting deadlier every day, causing more deaths and exposing more lives to danger amid almost a complete absence of monitoring.
The situation leads to a rise in frequency of fatal accidents involving these vehicles, according to reports of different organisations working on road safety.聽聽
Road safety experts point out that the highways have become infested with three-wheelers particularly after then prime minister Sheikh Hasina in May 2024 had conceded to the demand of the protesting owners and drivers of battery-run three-wheelers, allowing them to ply the Dhaka city roads.
Calling for urgent action from the interim government to bring these vehicles under tight rein, they said that currently a total anarchy reigned over almost all the highways across the country.聽
The situation has further aggravated after the fall of the Awami League-led regime in a mass uprising on August 5 last year, as the police on roads and highways have virtually stopped taking action against three-wheelers for traffic law violation, according to the reports of 抖阴精品 district correspondents.
Around the outskirts of Dhaka city, it is a common scene for three-wheelers, including CNG-run auto-rickshaws, battery-run rickshaws and 鈥榚asy bikes鈥�, to ply the Dhaka-Mymensingh, Dhaka-Chattogram, Dhaka-Sylhet, Dhaka-Aricha and Dhaka-Narayanganj highways that pass through or touch upon the city鈥檚 peripheral areas.
Among different types of three-wheelers, only CNG-run auto-rickshaws and pedalled rickshaws are covered in the country鈥檚 traffic laws and rules governed mostly by Bangladesh Road Transport Authority and city corporations. Battery-run rickshaws, which are a recent addition to the three-wheeler category of vehicles, are yet not covered by any traffic laws.
抖阴精品 correspondents in different districts report that these vehicles are as common as any other means of transport on the highways.
In Sirajganj, three-wheelers are common on different parts of the Dhaka-Sirajganj-Bogura national highway passing through Sirajganj, Bogura and Gaibandha districts.
Three-wheelers also ply the Rajshahi-Sirajganj-Natore-Bonpara-Dhaka highway.
After August 5 changeover, police are rarely reported to book anyone for running these vehicles on highways.
Bogura regional superintendent of the Highway Police Md Shahidullah (additional deputy inspector general) told 抖阴精品 that currently they were not taking action against these vehicles as the drivers had a tendency to 鈥榗reate a mob鈥�. He explained that when the police stopped three-wheelers and ordered the drivers to get off the highway, they often formed an instant mob with the local people and surrounded the police and threatened them.
But the Highway Police would soon take action in this regard, he added.
These vehicles are common on the regional highways鈥擳angail-Mymensingh, Tangail-Netrakona, Tangail-Jamalpur, Tangail-Sherpur and Tangail-Kishoreganj鈥攁ll of which pass through Tangail district.
In the districts of Rangpur division, three-wheelers are a common scene on the Rangpur-Shathibari stretch of the Rangpur-Dhaka national highway and different points of Rangpur-Kurigram and Rangpur-Gangachara (to Lalmonirhat) highways.
Three-wheelers, including 鈥楳ahindra鈥�, CNG-run auto-rickshaws and battery-run rickshaws, run abundantly on Rajshahi-Naogaon, Rajshahi-Natore-Dhaka and Rajshahi-Chapainawabganj highways, while in Cumilla, they run regularly particularly on the stretch connecting the Cumilla cantonment and Chandina.聽
On the Chattogram-Cox鈥檚 Bazar highway, three-wheelers crowd particularly the areas that fall in its Cox鈥檚 Bazar side.聽
Three-wheelers now rule the Sylhet-Dhaka, Sylhet-Tamabil, Sylhet-Sunamganj and Sylhet-Zakiganj highways in the Sylhet division.
The road transport ministry banned three-wheelers and non-motorised vehicles from 22 national highways since August 1, 2015 amid some fatal road crashes.
Later on May 15, 2024, then road transport and bridges minister Obaidul Quader ordered battery-run vehicles to be kept off the Dhaka city roads. But, just five days later on May 20, then prime minister Sheikh Hasina overturned the transport minister鈥檚 order following violent clashes between the police and battery-run rickshaw
drivers.
Then again, the Motor Vehicle Speed Limit Guidelines 2024, adopted in the same month of May last year, banned all kinds of three-wheelers on expressways, national highways and regional highways.
Following adoption of the guidelines, the Dhaka Metropolitan Police traffic division on July 13 banned battery-run rickshaws, locally made three-wheelers, and other slow-moving vehicles from the main roads of Dhaka city.
Efforts to control illegal three-wheelers continued even after the political changeover with little result so far.
The High Court, in a November 19, 2024 ruling, ordered the government to stop within three days the plying of unlicensed battery-run rickshaws and auto-rickshaws on Dhaka city streets, citing frequent road accidents and safety concerns.
But the Appellate Division, on November 25, issued a one-month status quo on the High Court order following a six-day violent protest of the battery-run rickshaw drivers in the capital, blocking roads and rail lines.
According to a Road Safety Foundation report, 49 passengers of three-wheelers, including auto-rickshaws, battery-run rickshaws, easy-bikes and auto-vans, died in road accidents in a passage of 11 days during recent Eid-ul-Fitr. Total road accident death toll during this time is 249.聽
Professor Shamsul Haque, director, Accident Research Institute under the Bangladesh University of Engineering and Technology, said that Sheikh Hasina as the head of the government permitted three-wheelers to run on Dhaka鈥檚 main roads, ignoring huge reservation from the police.
Now when the police tried to take action, owners and drivers of these vehicles cited they had government permission.
Saying that now the interim government, instead of controlling the situation, mulled giving registration to these vehicles, Shamsul observes that it would be another blunder from the government.聽
鈥楻egistration will be a blunder,鈥� he said, adding, 鈥業f this government does not want to face it they can at least ban three-wheelers on highways and main roads considering safety.鈥�
Passenger Welfare Association of Bangladesh secretary general Md Mozammel Hoque Chowdhury alleges that these vehicles can run on highways mainly by means of collusion between different transport organisations and some members of the law enforcement agencies.
Interim government adviser for road transport and bridges Muhammad Fouzul Kabir Khan said that law enforcement on the roads and highways lay mainly with the police.
鈥榃e, however, are trying to stop this,鈥� he said.
According to union leaders, around 60 lakh battery-run rickshaws, including eight lakh in Dhaka city, run across the country.