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Hell on wheels

Black cab sends chill down passenger's spine

Sharier Khan
When Ashish got a black taxi cab at the busy corner of Karwan Bazar, he could not afford the luxury of noticing its appearance. He was rather grateful that during the rush hour the young cab driver at least did not behave as if he was the king of the world like his colleagues.
Hopping in the cab, Ashish got himself buried in his office documents he was carrying to his Dhanmondi destination. But in just a few minutes his concentration was snapped, and he noticed in addition to the fast running cab's sound and fury, it was also shaking like a rail wagon. He felt the wheels of the cab were not properly aligned and might come off any moment.
He raised his worried eyes to look at the cab driver and express his concerns. But his tilting gaze got stuck half way on what
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perhaps had been the dashboard --now only a steel skeleton with gaping holes through which a plethora of wires were sticking out like snakes ready to lunge at him. He saw nothing resembling a switch, neither could he find any glove compartment.
As he panned his eyes to the steering wheel, he saw the driver's hands clenching the bare metal frame of the wheel stripped of its covering.
Suddenly he became aw are of his more intimate surroundings, and noticed the seat cover he was sitting on was tattered and sticky', emanating a foul smell.
Ashish coughed to draw’ the attention of the driver, who just briefly glanced back. Although the driver had been polite so far, his face fitted the profile of a junkie. He could well be a mugger or a molom party' member, Ashish became petrified as soon as the thought crossed his mind, as he had been mugged twice before in a cab and a CNG run autorickshaw.
So instead of complaining, he decided to sit back waiting for 'the moment' that seemed almost certain.
Ashish's fear of imminent danger was mounting, as the driver was also ogling every woman the cab was passing by, even turning his head backward while the taxi was zooming forward. So Ashish coughed to embarrass the driver into paying more attention to the road to avoid accidents, but in vain. Perhaps the driver thought him to be a patient of bronchitis, Ashish found no other reason for the total disregard.
As they came near Dhanmondi road no 27 crossing, it started to rain. Without
any warning, the driver suddenly pulled the car over to the curb. Ashish thought, "Now he is going to rob me!"
Within seconds, the driver pulled out something from under the seat, and Ashish was sure that was to be the weapon of the crime about to descend upon him.
Ashish was ready to jump out of the car and run for his life. He almost opened the door when he saw the driver standing outside next to the door saying, "Sir, 1 need to roll up the windows."
"What?" was the only word came out of flabbergasted Ashish, as he saw in the driver's hand a curious devise resembling a handle of a car's window roller. He looked around inside the cab and noticed none of the window rollers had any handle except the one next to him. And the windows were all rolled down with rain getting in the cab. The weapon' in the driver's hand was indeed one such handle.
Ashish silently watched as the driver rolled up all the windows with the sole broken handle, one by one. Yet the window panes did not go all the \yay up. He .was .ultimately partly drenched by the rain by the time he reached his destination.
A large number of people, who commute in taxi cabs in the capital, face similar or worse experience everyday because most of the cabs have become junks on wheels. The drivers are rude who do not follow any professional code of conduct. They are not at all courteous to passengers — rather the opposite is true, especially when it comes to bargaining a fare despite all the cabs having fare metres. And when you thought you
found a good cab driver, he would suddenly drop you at an odd location saying that his car needs servicing or a gas refill.
Although most cabs have police complaint phone numbers printed on their bodies or rear windows, passengers do not even bother complaining, as they find it futile.
According to Bangladesh Road Transport Authority (BRTA), out of a total 10,857 registered taxis in Dhaka, around 7,500 were refused registration renewal, and were declared discardable' due to unfit conditions.
But the fact remains that many of those 'discardable' taxis are running on the streets amid the silence of the traffic police authority.
Taxi cabs were introduced in the city in 1999. Of the total number of registered cabs, 6,450 are non-AC 800 CC cabs which are also known as black or blue cabs, against which the passengers have the most complaints.
Dhaka Metropolitan Police (DMP) Commissioner AKM Shahidul Haque said if cabs are caught with faults, the traffic police only fine the owners instead of seizing the vehicles. Those vehicles are allowed to go free with fines because the police department does not have a junk yard big enough to store the junks, he added.
The junk vehicles tend to return to the streets within two to three weeks of being fined.
DMP Joint Commissioner Manjur Kader Khan said the traffic police also avoid arresting the drivers or seizing the vehicles as that could involve themselves going to courts for dealing with cases, which would take away time from their duty hours.