The revised policy for taxi service would create room for more taxis in the city, said officials of Bangladesh Road Transport Authority (BRTA).

The policy is on its final stage of formation. A meeting among all the stakeholders in will sit today in a bid to wrap up the two-year-long effort for the amended policy to come to effect, said Md Saiful Hoque, director (engineering) of BRTA.

He said new provisions in the revised policy would allow the owners to replace their taxis or ask for new registration if a vehicle exceeds its economic life or meets accidents.

According to the revised policy, no 800cc vehicles would be allowed to operate as taxis, said Saiful, adding that a taxi needs to be at least 1350cc or more to ensure durable service.

Under the revised policy, economic life of a

taxi will be increased to 10 years from the current eight years. Reconditioned vehicles would be allowed as taxis but they have to be less than three years old while the ceiling is up to five years for2000cc vehicles, he added.

The BRTA also proposed that the companies run the service rather than any individual owners.

Saiful said, “There were owners who have only one or two taxis running on the streets. This had made it impossible to bring discipline or establish accountability in the sector, as there have been too many owners."

As per the policy, separate driving licence will be introduced for taxi drivers and no driver can refuse short trips to passengers. Also, the taxi owners will be obliged to have radio communication between taxis and their very own refuelling facilities, he added.

FROM PAGE 16

Taxi was introduced in the capital in 1999, which collapsed within a few years. Currently about 80 percent of the taxis are out of service.

The owners blame selection of wrong vehicles, untrained drivers, carjacking and road condition as major reasons behind the dismal state of the sector.

According to BRIA, out of 10,857 registered taxis in Dhaka around 7,500 taxis have been discarded over fitness issue.

However, many taxis especially the black ones are still on the streets in a run-down condition without fitness certificates, said BRTA officials.

Meanwhile, the owners claimed that all the companies except Navana have gone bankrupt.

To salvage the sector government about a year ago announce the taxi sector as a sick industry and relieved the companies from the burden of paying loan interest But they are to pay their loan amounts back.

"The new policy will improve the service for the commuters. For instance, the replacement policy will increase the number of taxis," says SR Khan, president of the Cab Association ofBangladesh.

Owners will also have some additional perks under the revised policy, which is already being appreciated by the taxi owners association, he added.

SR Khan explained that under the current policy taxis were registered as private cars, which required payment of around Tk 60,000 as fee. "A separate registration criteria with reduced amount of fee is being proposed this time," Khan said.