Desk Report: Despite government ban, slow-moving vehicles are still running on the highways across the country, causing fatal accidents almost every day, reports Daily Sun.
Different slow vehicles, including, CNG-run auto-rickshaws, battery-run three-wheelers, rickshaws, shallow-engine-driven Nasimon and Bhatbhati, are mainly responsible for accidents on highways.
Despite recent student protests for safe roads, discipline in transport sector is yet to come. Killings in crashes on roads and highways have become a regular phenomenon.
Six more people were killed in separate road crushes in Brahmanbaria and Narsingdi.
A head-on collision between a passenger bus and a human-hauler cost lives of 15 people in Natore on Saturday.
Transport workers from different districts alleged that these slow-moving vehicles operate on the highways, paying monthly ‘token money’ to political leaders, police and administration. Road, Transport and Bridges Minister Obaidul Quader recently admitted that the number of deaths in road accidents is increasing every day due to the presence of three-wheelers on highways. The road, transport and bridges ministry imposed a ban on movement of three-wheeler and non-motorised vehicles on 22 national highways on August 1, 2015 in the wake of fatal traffic accidents on the highways due to presence of these vehicles.
Operation of three-wheelers, auto-rickshaws and other local human haulers on highways is rampant in Faridpur.
Talking to the daily sun, Nazrul, an auto-rickshaw driver, said he has bought a monthly token from the police for Tk 600 to run his three-wheeler on Faridpur-Jessore highway.
“Like me, several hundred drivers in our area are regularly buying these monthly tokens,” he added.
CNG-run auto-rickshaws are also plying on highways in Sylhet.
District Auto-rickshaw Drivers’ Association leaders said over 5,000 auto-rickshaws of Dakshin Surama, Biswanath, Osmani Nagar and Balaganj upazilas are operating on Sylhet-Dhaka highway while around 4,000 at Sadar, Goainghat, Jaintapur and Companiganj upazilas ply Sylhet-Tamabil and Sylhet-Companiganj highways.
But the drivers said they have nothing to do as the ban was imposed without developing alternative roads for three-wheelers.
Sylhet District Police Superintendent Md Moniruzzaman said their efforts to stop movement of three-wheelers on highways are continuing.
Slow-moving vehicles are also running with passengers and goods on the highways in Natore.
Transport workers claimed that they are giving Tk 200-300 to police.
Despite mobile courts, CNG-run auto-rickshaws, easy bikes, tempo and Mahendra returned to the Tangail-Aricha, Gazipur-Tangail and Tangail-Mymensingh-Jamalpur highways.
These three-wheelers are also running between Rabna bypass and Elenga, Elenga and Mymensingh and Modhupur and Sherpur.
In Sirajganj, three-wheelers are plying Bogra-Nagarbari highway.
These vehicles are operating on a 40-kilometre stretch between Baghabari under Shahjadpur upazila and Hatikumrul intersection under Ullapara upazila during daytime.
There are 20 auto-rickshaw stands on the highway in Sirajganj, Hatikumrul intersection, BSCIC bus stand, Dilruba bus stand, Talgachhi, Baghbari, Ullapara railway station bus stand and Shymoli Para bus stand areas.
Transport workers have alleged that they pay Tk 100 as monthly ‘token money’ to police for running their vehicles.
Three-wheelers and other illegal vehicles like ‘Hello Bike’ also ply the Dhaka-Aricha national highway and regional highways in seven upazilas in Manikganj district.
As many as 8,978 people died in 549 days in road crashes across the country till 27 August, 2018.
In the wake of scores of deaths on roads, the government has decided to enforce at least 20 measures, including the ban on three-wheelers and slow-moving vehicles on highways.
The decisions were taken on Monday in the 42nd meeting of the Road Transport Advisory Council (RTAC) chaired by Road, Transport and Bridges Minister Obaidul Quader.
After the two-hour RTAC meeting, Quader briefed journalists on the decisions taken in the meeting.
Amid the ongoing drives against three-wheelers plying the highways, police have dumped around 30 three-wheelers running on Jashore-Benapole highway into a pond near Navaran highway police camp on Wednesday.
Paliton Mia, sub-inspector of the police camp, said they are conducting a special drive on Jessore-Benapole and Jessore-Satkhira highways following the government’s move to strictly control the operation of three-wheeled vehicles on the highways.
Contacted, DIG of Highway Atiqul Islam on Wednesday said, “We are continuing drives against the illegal and slow-moving vehicles on different highways across the country.”
“We’ve intensified drives against the three-wheelers across the country,” he added.