Driving licence issuance relaxed for six more months [ Tritiyo Matra News ]

Driving licence issuance relaxed for six more months

Local June 22, 2019

The road transport and bridges ministry recently extended the time for the relaxed rules in issuing driving licences for the second time despite security concerns for medium and heavy vehicles, including public transports.
The authorities extended the deadline from June 30 this year to December 31 this year.
Road safety experts feared that the relaxation of the rules would risk road safety as it allowed the drivers without enough and proper experiences to drive medium and heavy vehicles, including public transports.
Meanwhile, fatal road accidents on highways and roads across the country increased in the past year and continue to take place while experts blame reckless driving of medium and heavy vehicles as a major reason behind the increase.
Earlier on August 28, 2018, the Bangladesh Road Transport Authority in a circular said that the public transport drivers with legal professional light driving licences and minimum one-year experience would be allowed to apply for medium driving licences.
It also said that the public transport drivers with medium vehicle driving licences and minimum one-year experience would be eligible for getting heavy driving licences.
Earlier, the drivers with light vehicle driving licences and minimum three-year experience were eligible for medium vehicle driving licences and the drivers with medium vehicle driving licences and minimum three-year experience could apply for heavy driving licences.
The circular was issued as currently there was a lack of drivers with heavy and medium vehicles driving licences against the number of heavy and medium vehicles in the country.
In February, 38.85 lakh registered motor vehicles were run by 20.35 lakh drivers with valid licences across the country, according to the BRTA.
The authority, for the first time, last year extended the deadline from December 31, 2018 to June 30 this year following a request from Bangladesh Road Transport Workers Federation leaders.
BRTA director (engineering) Md Lokman Hossain Mollah told New Age on Thursday that the road ministry extended the time till December 31 this year in the second week of June as many drivers were yet to avail the chance.
He, however, said that they did not have statistics about the drivers who had availed the opportunity provided by the relaxation of the rules but mentioned that the response was good especially from drivers with medium vehicle licences.
The officer also said that in Dhaka city most heavy vehicles were run by drivers who had medium or light vehicle licences.
In May this year they provided training to 200 of these drivers for capacity building and in this June they would impart the same training to 50 more drivers, he added.
The data, collected based on police’s first information reports, shows that in 2018 there were 2,609 traffic accidents causing 2,635 deaths and 1,920 injuries while 2,513 people were killed and 1,898 others injured in 2,562 accidents in 2017.
A report prepared by the Passenger Welfare Association of Bangladesh shows that during the Eid-ul-Fitr this year, 273 people were killed and 849 others injured in 232 road accidents.
According to the report, the highest 27.43 per cent of these accidents involved buses, 23.89 per cent involved motorcycles, 23.59 per cent involved trucks, pickup vans, covered vans and lorries, 8.25 per cent involved cars and microbuses, 7.66 per cent involved auto-rickshaws, 4.42 per cent involved nasimons and karimons and 4.71 per cent involved battery-run autos and easy bikes.
Bangladesh University of Engineering and Technology’s Accident Research Institute director Professor Md Mizanur Rahman told New Age on Friday that many vehicles were being driven on roads by drivers without licences or with fake or inappropriate licences in the first place.
He blamed shortage of drivers, lengthy licence issuance process by the Bangladesh Road Transport Authority and ignorance of people about traffic rules as major reasons for the situation.
‘In the ideal situation, the drivers should get licences according to their experiences, fixed by the law for safety,’ the director said, adding, ‘Only by extending the time [for issuing licences under relaxed rules] the problem will not be solved because the drivers should be trained properly.’
Mizanur has urged the BRTA to identify and train the drivers who have no licences but drive vehicles and requested the owners to check licences before appointing any driver.
Road Safety Foundation vice-president Jyotirmoy Barua said that the relaxation of rules would hamper road safety.
The relaxation would allow drivers to drive medium and heavy vehicles without enough and proper experiences, he observed.
Recently accidents involving motorcycles increased while most of the drivers of heavy vehicles hit motorcycles as they were not experienced enough to avoid such accidents, he said.
‘The Bangladesh Road Transport Authority knows that how many drivers do not have licences while the authorities have no control over them,’ he added.
The relaxation, he said further, could bring self-satisfaction but would risk safety on the roads, he added.
On June 25, 2018, the prime minister issued six directives from the weekly cabinet meeting to take effective measures to reduce the increasing road accidents, mostly due to reckless driving and exhaustion of drivers performing duty for long hours without any rest.