Old buses, trucks to be sent to the scrap yards

The government has decided that buses and trucks will be scrapped after 20 and 25 years of being on the road.

A circular of the Road Transport and Highways Division issued yesterday revealed the move, the first of its kind in Bangladesh.

The order will come into force through the publication of a gazette.

The gazette will be issued within a few days, BRTA Chairman Nur Mohammad Mazumder told The Daily Star.

Experts said proper implementation of the move would improve road safety.

The Road Transport and Highways Division has also prepared a draft guideline for scrapping old vehicles. In the draft, it has been mentioned that no vehicle owner would be able to register a new vehicle if they own a vehicle that has exceeded the "service life" set by the government.

The draft Motor Vehicle Scrapping Guideline-2023 said the government would be outsourcing the vehicle scrapping job to private firms enlisted with the Bangladesh Road Transport Authority (BRTA) and under the BRTA's supervision.

The move comes more than four years after a special committee formed by the National Road Safety Council recommended setting the usable life of commercial vehicles to reduce road crashes and help bring discipline to the road transport sector.

Thousands of unfit and rickety vehicles are on the roads and the rising numbers of crashes and deaths have become a major concern.

"This is a good move for road safety but intensive monitoring and quality enforcement is the key to getting positive results," prominent transport expert Prof Shamsul Haque said.

Prof Shamsul, also the director of the Accident Research Institute at Buet, told The Daily Star yesterday that there are enough laws, rules and guidelines for the road transport sector but the problem lies in implementation and enforcement.

Due to the lack of monitoring and enforcement, one will see hundreds of unregistered and unfit vehicles even at the periphery of the capital, he said.

He, however, said the usable life of a vehicle shortens due to poor road quality, overloading, and improper maintenance. And these can lead to a vehicle having major issues even within the government-set service life of the bus or truck.

SERVICE LIFE

The BRTA in 2010 banned buses aged over 20 years and trucks over 25 years in the capital. The old vehicles then started operating on inter-district highways.

In March 2019, a committee, led by transport leader Shajahan Khan, made 111 recommendations to curb road accidents and bring discipline in the sector. The recommendations include setting the service life of buses and trucks to 20 and 25 years. It mentioned that old vehicles cause road crashes and congestion due to breakdowns.

The government formed a task force led by the home minister to implement the recommendations.

BRTA Chairman Mazumder told The Daily Star that the BRTA had sought opinions from stakeholders regarding the draft guideline. "The guideline will be finalised in the shortest possible time after an inter-ministerial meeting."

Mazumder said the BRTA would take outdated vehicles off the roads and would not wait for the approval of the guideline.

Khondaker Enayet Ullah, secretary general of Bangladesh Road Transport Owners Association, said, "We support the decision."

Replying to a question, he said he had no idea how many outdated vehicles were in the country. "But we think there are such vehicles in the districts."

DRAFT GUIDELINE

The preamble to the draft guideline mentions that the move is required to improve road safety, bring discipline to the transport sector and reduce pollution.

The guideline will also be applicable to written off vehicles of the government and non-government organisations, vehicles damaged by fire, explosion or natural calamities, illegal and banned vehicles, and vehicles ordered for scrapping by courts or other authorities concerned.

As per the guideline, the owner has to submit the necessary papers for the outdated vehicle to the BRTA which would hand over the vehicle to the firm scrapping.

The government would give special benefits to owners who would have the document certifying that they have scrapped their old vehicles, it read.

The BRTA would issue gazettes cancelling the registrations of scrapped vehicles.

A seven-member committee led by the director (engineering) of the BRTA will decide which parts of the vehicles could be recycled and fix the price of scrap metal, plastic and other products, it added.

Violation of the guideline would be tantamount to violation of the Road Transport Act-2018, it read.