Rickshaws in limbo in city streets

Sixteen years since the authorities stopped issuing licences to rickshaws, there are about 10 lakh unregistered rickshaws on the streets and a third about all trips are still covered by rickshaws.
In the absence of government authorisation, many rickshaws now receive patronage from unions.
Meanwhile, rickshaw-owners claim they spend Tk 25,000 to 30,000 in payoffs to government officials every year to keep rickshaws on the streets.
Police officials claimed because of absence of any specific law they were able to take legal action against rickshaws.
According to the two city corporations of Dhaka, DMP and road transport experts, currently there are about 10 lakh unregistered rickshaws are on roads while the number of registered rickshaws is only about 80,000.
Thousands of rickshaws ply the streets of the capital everyday even on VIP roads, many of them crossing over from Savar and Narayanganj in the morning and leaving in the evening.
At certain points including Karwan Bazar, Banglamotor, Satrasta, Gulshan and Kakrail areas, rickshaw-pullers have to pay Tk 20 to Tk 10 to law enforcers to pass through VIP roads.
Unregistered rickshaws usually carry number plates – many times more than one – issued by organisations such as Bangladesh Rickshaw o Van Malik Federation, Jatiya Rickshaw Van Sramik League o Bangladesh Rickshaw Malik League and Bangladesh Muktijoddha Sangshad Parishad.
In 1999, the then Dhaka City Corporation stopped issuing registration to rickshaws, vans and push-cars in line with a decision to discourage the presence of rickshaws on city streets, said officials.
At that time, out of a total 87,611 registered non-motorised vehicles about 80,000 registrations were for rickshaws.
Momin, a rickshaw-owner from Rampura, said they had to pay Tk 25,000 to Tk 30,000 to the city corporation each year to operate a rickshaw through different organisations.
‘By giving money to policemen you can even ply on any VIP road,’ said Noyon, a rickshaw puller at Shahbagh area.
Bangladesh Rickshaw o Van Malik Federation general secretary RA Zaman claimed they only provided a card to each owner and not any registration.
BUET’s urban and regional planning teacher Md Musleh Uddin Hasan said according to the Dhaka Urban Transport Network development study conducted by the Japan International Cooperation Agency in 2010, about one third of the total trips were covered by rickshaws.
A holistic approach is necessary to improve the situation while the authorities should consider how these trips will be completed if unregistered rickshaws are evicted, he said.
Dhaka South City Corporation chief revenue officer Mostafa Kamal brushed aside allegations of taking kickbacks from unregistered rickshaw owners.
‘We take only Tk 100 from registered rickshaws annually as license fee,’ he said.
He said they were planning to hold a discussion very soon with concerned ministries, experts and the media on how the number of rickshaws can be reduced.
Dhaka North City Corporation chief revenue officer Md Montazuddin said they were planning to introduce new public buses for ordinary people, with separate buses for women, to reduce dependency on rickshaws.
DMP additional commissioner (traffic) Khandaker Golam Faruque told New Age Thursday that rickshaws slowed down motorised vehicles, leading to traffic congestion, and due to lack of enforcement of traffic rules, rickshaw-pullers frequently triggered accidents.
‘We cannot take any legal action against rickshaws due to absence of laws on non motor vehicles. The Motor Vehicles Ordinance 1983 only covers motor vehicles,’ he said.
The additional commissioner said they only seize rickshaw seats or dump rickshaws when they ply on rickshaw-free roads as city corporations were the sole authority to rein in unregistered rickshaws.
He blamed the Ansar members for taking bribe to allow rickshaws on VIP roads.
DMP joint commissioner (traffic-North) Mosleh Uddin Ahmed said they had faced problems in dumping rickshaws because of lack of space.

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