Ignoring ban, battery-run rickshaws and such rickshaw-vans are being operated on Dhaka-Aricha highway due to inaction by law enforcers.

The movement of such rickshaws cause problem to the heavy vehicles leading to accidents often, said locals.

On January 14, a man and his three-year-old daughter were killed and his wife was critically injured as a truck hit a battery-run rickshaw carrying them on the highway in Niribili of Savar outside of the capital, police said.

Many drivers of bus, truck and car demanded immediate withdrawal of the illegal vehicles from the highway.

Wishing not to be named, a bus driver of Hanif Enterprise said sometimes these small vehicles ply the highway in such a way that they face difficulties to control a bus.

Motiur Rahman, an ambulance driver, said some days ago a rickshaw-van loaded with 10 sacks of rice remained stranded on the road as one of its tyres got punctured, forcing the ambulance with a patient to stay in a tailback from CNB area to Savar bus stand for a long time.

A large number of on-duty law enforcers including traffic police, highway police, and thana police are not seen taking proper steps; rather they allegedly let the drivers operate the vehicles after taking bribe from them.

A driver, seeking anonymity, said, “If we pay police Tk 500 to Tk 1,000, they release those vehicles; otherwise, they seize the batteries and motors.”

Denying the allegations, Inspector (traffic) Md Abul Hossen of Savar said they try to remove the illegal battery-run rickshaws but cannot succeed due to a shortage of manpower.

Contacted, Shah Mizan Shafiur Rahman, superintendent of police in Dhaka, said the district police will arrange programmes to create awareness among the drivers and passengers.

Nurul Alom, officer-in-charge of Golora Highway Police Station in Manikganj, said, “We always remove three-wheelers including battery-run rickshaw-vans from the highway.”

Md Anisur Rahman, president of Savar Municipality Rickshaw-van (manual) Owners Association, said more than 50,000 battery-run rickshaw-vans run in Savar and Dhamrai. “We protest against those, but to no avail.”

When asked why they are operating the battery-run three-wheelers defying ban, Abdus Sattar, owner of 15 such rickshaws plying Savar municipal area, said he will stop the operation as soon as possible. On January 25 this year, the High Court imposed a ban on plying of improvised motorised three-wheelers, known as Nasimon, Karimon, Bhatboti, on highways across the country to reduce the number of road crashes. Earlier on August 1, 2015, the government banned three-wheeler, auto-rickshaw, auto-tempo and all non-motorised vehicles on 22 national highways.