Is it Nobody's Headache ? Part-IVSome 111 recommendations made by a committee led by former minister and transport leader Shajahan Khan in April 2019 have apparently fallen on deaf ear as a result the number of road accidents and fatalities could not be reduced.
The reduction in road crashes is not possible without proper implementation of the law, according to sources.
According to one of the 111 recommendations placed by a committee led by former shipping minister Shajahan Khan and executive president of the Bangladesh Road Transport Workers' Federation in April 2019, drivers will have to be provided with appointment letters and be paid under a salary structure.
Appointment letters for public transport workers are still elusive while experts and academics blamed this reality as a major reason for the chaos and frequent fatal accidents on roads.
Workers of the sector get paid based on the number of trips they make daily, which is mostly responsible for the fierce competition among buses to make as many trips as possible, especially on roads in the capital, they said.
Several sections of the act still remained unimplemented due to pressure from the transport associations and absence of rules, which were not framed in the last four years, Road Transport and Bridges Ministry sources said.
A taskforce led by Home Minister Asaduzzaman Khan was formed in October 2019 to implement the 111 recommendations.
Among the PMO's 17 directives on August 16 in 2018, was an order for buses to pick up and drop off passengers only at designated spots and to keep doors of running buses shut at all times. These orders continue to be flouted. Leaders of transport workers allege that they have unsuccessfully pressed for monthly salaries and allowances year after year while operators blame workers for the situation.
Road transport experts say that the operators and workers have to reach a consensus for monthly salary structures while road discipline is also necessary to universally introduce a salary system in the sector.
According to official statistics, 3,607,705 people have driving licences in the country till February this year.
Of them, around 1.87 lakh professional drivers have the licence to drive heavy vehicles, including buses and trucks, 1.04 lakh the licence to drive medium vehicles like minibuses, trucks and covered vans and 78,300 the licence to drive three-wheeler vehicles.
According to an Accident Research Institute at Bangladesh (ARI) University of Engineering and Technology study, a bus driver in the capital has to pay the owner Tk 4,000 to Tk 4,500 daily, he noted.
'The drivers behind the wheel remain under mental pressure to pay their owners a fixed amount of money and keep a share for themselves,' he said, adding that 'Because of this pressure the drivers engage in a sick competition with each other even for an additional passenger often causing accidents and traffic congestions.'
