Half of Ctg dist vehicles unfit

Around 44,000 motor vehicles out of the total 82,406 registered ones are plying the roads and highways in Chittagong district without fitness putting the lives of the travellers at danger.

However, the figure excludes the number of motorbikes, said sources of Bangladesh Road Transport Authority, Chittagong.

Commuters said during travelling, many vehicles broke down in the middle of their journeys, and they had to take other vehicles to reach their destinations.

They urged the authorities concerned to take action against such unfit vehicles.

A private firm employee, Mohammad Hossain, who has to commute from Chowdhuryhat in Hathazari upazila to Golpahar in the city, said he faced such troubles.

“The human haulers go out of order very often,” he said, adding, “It is very annoying.”

Echoing him, Aminul Ahsan, another commuter, said he is always in fear of accidents while travelling in such vehicles.

Fearing that the vehicles will catch fire, passengers of human haulers sometimes asked the drivers to pull over as they see the vehicles emitting a lot of thick black smoke, said Abul Bashar, a street vendor in the city's Prabartok.

Sima Akter, a master's student of Chittagong College, who travels from Gate No-2 area to Chawkbazar regularly, said all the way she remained tensed whether she could reach her destination safely.

Half of the motor vehicles are plying the streets in Chittagong without fitness certificates defying a ban, BRTA sources said.

Fitness depends on the proper functioning of different parts of the vehicle including brakes, gears, horns and lights, the sources said, adding that those had to be fit externally too.

Md Sirajul Islam, deputy director of BRTA, Chittagong, told The Daily Star that they conducted mobile courts against unfit vehicles regularly.

Now they expedited such drives, he added.

Masud Ul Hasan, deputy commissioner (traffic-north) of Chittagong Metropolitan Police, said they also conducted drives against the vehicles on a regular basis.

The drives will be increased when they will get the official papers of a High Court order, he added.

The HC on August 3 directed the government to immediately stop operation of all unfit motor vehicles across the country.

Issuing a suo moto rule, the court also ordered the authorities concerned to freeze around 19 lakh fake driving licences.

The HC bench of Justice Quazi-Reza-Ul Haque and Justice Abu Taher Md Saifur Rahman asked the authorities to take legal action against the persons who are using fake licences.

Besides, the court also asked the BRTA chairman to submit a report after complying with the order in 30 days.

Meanwhile, Road Transport and Bridges Minister Obaidul Quader at a programme in Chittagong city on August 5 said there would be no comprise on the fitness of vehicles.