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Unfit vehicles rush to get fit at BRTA

Kailash Sarkar
As the government launched a drive to rid the capital of unfit vehicles and ease congestion, owners and drivers of such vehicles thronged the offices of Bangladesh Road Transport Authority to get their papers in order.
A large number of unfit buses, mostly more than 20 years old, did not run to avoid the mobile courts and police, resulting in a slight improvement of congestion. Vehicles with fake documents and drivers with fake licences were also out of commission, sources said.
According to witnesses, several hundred vehicles, for the most part cars, were seen parked in long queues around the
BRTA office at Mirpur as the owners of these vehicles went there to update the papers.
Sources said following the government directive to rid the city of unfit vehicles, owners and drivers of those vehicles are now trying to get their vehicles fixed, repainted and their documents updated.
BRTA Director (enforcement) Tapan Kumar Sarker told The Daily Star, "Everyday around 200 to 250 people come to their office to update their vehicle papers. But after the recent government move, the number has started to increase."
He said yesterday's and Sunday's number of vehicles were more than double than that of the previous days'.
Tapan Kumar Sarker said around 7,500
buses and minibuses ply the city streets andofthem around 2,500are "model out" vehicles (buses that are legally too old to run in the capital) while many of them do not have fitness certificates or other documents.
The BRTA director said there are around 12.5 lakh registered vehicles in the country and over five lakh are registered in the capital.
The government has formed a 12-member committee headed by the additional secretary to the communications ministry to coordinate and monitor the activities of mobile courts and other agencies to ease traffic jams in the capital.
The 12-member committee chief
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Shafique Alam Mehdi Sunday told The Daily Star, "We have visited several city streets and found a huge number of old and model out vehicles and many others with no valid papers."
"We made the visit to make an observation over the existing situation and found a huge number of drivers and owners were running their vehicles with fake papers and licences," die additional secretary said, adding, "We already asked the authorities concerned to investigate the mater."
The government is going to set up 16 mobile courts with 20 magistrates in eight zones of the city. Shafique said the courts would also take actions against vehicles that cause traffic jams and obstruct vehicular movement.
The two mobile courts run by BRTA since August 4, however, failed to seize a single vehicle so far.
The BRTA director said. "The mobile courts filed 16 cases and collected Tk 20,000 in fines but did not seize any model out vehicles. "
Dhaka Metropolitan Police (DMP) Commissioner AKM Shahidul Hoque told The Daily-Star. "Since they launched the special drives on August 9, they seized 1,804 motor vehicles and around
1,500 illegal rickshaws."
"Normally 20 to 25 percent buses are model out vehicles but now we do not see them on the streets anymore," the DMP commissioner said, adding, "Currently, we are not releasing any of the seized vehicles. At the end of our drives we would release them against the signing of bonds with the owners that they would not run them in the capital."
Shahidul also said a major improvement of the city traffic situation was observed. Witnesses said traffic was less hectic yesterday than that of previous days'.
Leaders of the transport owners' association claimed the government move would cause sufferings to city dwellers.
Osman Ali, executive presi-dent of Mohakhali Bus Terminal Sramik Union, said, "In the name of drive against old and model out vehicles, the mobile courts and police are harassing drivers and vehicle owners."