Vehicles with extra bumper, angle, hook defy orders

Movement of modified trucks and covered vans still remains rampant on highways and roads in defiance of the High Court and the government’s repeated orders against it.
Not only on the highways, these trucks and covered vans, with extra and dangerous bumpers, angles and hooks, are also seen on capital’s busy roads in the daytime. 
Both the road transport and bridges ministry and transport operators have been unable to give the number of modified trucks and covered vans, with these additional features, currently running in the country.
Earlier on August 3, 2015 a High Court issued an order asking the government and the police to keep unfit motor vehicles off the roads.
The Bangladesh Road Transport Authority on May 18, 2016 issued a notification asking the owners to remove bumpers, angle bars and hooks from all trucks and covered vans by June that year. 
The authorities fixed six deadlines since 2016 for implementing the order while the latest deadline expired on April 15 this year.
Since April 16, the authorities started a countrywide drive against trucks and covered vans running with these extra and dangerous features. The drive is still ongoing. 
According to the BRTA, in April a total of 1,472 cases were filed against the same number of trucks and covered vans all over the country for having these features while these features were removed from 349 vehicles by executive magistrates. 
In the capital alone, 316 cases were filed for the same offences and these illegal features were removed from 227 vehicles by magistrates in May. 
The countrywide drive is being conducted jointly by BRTA, district administrations, superintendents of police and law enforcing agencies.
Bangladesh Truck and Covered Van Owners’ Association assistant general secretary Hossain Ahmed Majumder said there were about two lakh trucks and covered vans in the country. 
He claimed that so far extra bumpers, angles and hooks had been removed from 80 per cent of the 21,354 registered covered vans.
He informed that there were about 1.24 lakh registered trucks in the country and many of those running in the northern districts had these additional features. 
BRTA secretary Muhammad Showkat Ali told New Age on Sunday that according to their assumption the illegal features had been removed from about 80 to 90 per cent trucks and covered vans. 
A senior official, however, said the percentage of such vehicles, from which the additional features had been removed, could be about 40 per cent. 
Showkat said their drive would continue. 
The government order had been given as modified vehicles were damaging roads and highways and increasing their maintenance costs while these vehicles were also a major reason behind accidents on highways. 

News Courtesy: www.newagebd.net