Rayhan Uddin, a private job holder, bought a motorcycle a few months ago but could not register it due to time constraint.

It takes at least two or three days to complete the registration process. As he could not take leave from office, his vehicle had remained unregistered.

Finally he got an opportunity when the Bangladesh Road Transport Authority (BRTA) came up with a daylong on-the-spot registration service yesterday.

Dozens thronged Rajdhani High School on Manik Mia Avenue in the capital where it took only 20-30 minutes to register one motorbike.

BRTA had advertised the service in the media.

“In the advertisement, BRTA gave detailed instructions of how to register and which documents to require.... I came here with all the necessary documents and registered in 30 minutes,” Rayhan told The Daily Star.

BRTA arranged the service for the first time, marking United Nations Public Service Day, said officials.

Road Transport and Bridges Minister Obaidul Quader inaugurated the service around 11:00am and it continued till 3:00pm.

“The major aim of the service is to encourage people to register their motorcycles,” said BRTA Secretary Showkat Ali.

Around 200 motorcyclists gathered on Manik Miah Avenue, and 85 of them registered, said BRTA officials. The service-takers welcomed the initiative and called for making it frequent.

“Those who had proper documents could easily register. But how can we give registration to those who did not have documents?” said Showkat Ali.

“I came from Demra.... Arriving here, I came to know that my documents have some faults. So I could not get registration,” said Mohammad Raju, a businessman.

Eminent urban expert Prof Shamsul Hoque said such on-the-spot registration service benefited people, and it would help to reduce the number of unregistered motorcycles.

He also suggested making on-the-spot registration service available for public transport, especially buses.

The government has been cracking down on unregistered motorcycles for the last few months in the capital.

According to BRTA, there are 4 lakh registered and hundreds of unregistered motorcycles in Dhaka city.