Guideline for slow-moving vehicles on the cards

Amid growing number of road accidents involving slow-moving vehicles on highways, the government has decided to formulate a guideline to control movement of these vehicles.

Road Transport and Bridges Ministry took the decision as the authorities failed to implement a ban imposed on plying of these vehicles on highways.

The government had banned three-wheelers, including those made locally, and other slow vehicles on 22 national highways in August 2015, and issued directives on several occasions to implement the ban.

But these vehicles keep operating on the roads -- causing frequent accidents -- allegedly with the blessings of local representatives. Road Transport and Bridges Minister Obaidul Quader, on several occasions, admitted this.

Road safety organisations in their reports have said slow-moving vehicles and motorcycles were behind most road accidents during the Eid rush. Motorcycles and three-wheelers were involved in more than 40 percent of road crashes between May 30 and June 11, according to Bangladesh Jatri Kalyan Samity.

Obaidul Quader, in a meeting on June 10, also talked about the matter and sought suggestions on how movement of such vehicles can be controlled on highways. The meeting directed Road Transport and Highways Division to immediately take action to formulate a guideline to control these vehicles on highways.

As per the decision, the division will take opinion from Bangladesh Road Transport Authority (BRTA) and transport experts, and prepare a draft of the guideline within one month.

An official of the division, seeking anonymity, said names for a proposed committee were sent to the secretary for approval. He declined to give details.

There is no exact number of such vehicles operating in the country. But people involved in the transport sector said the number would be more than 10 lakh.

Nazrul Islam, secretary of the division, told this correspondent yesterday that besides national highways, such vehicles are operating on regional and district highways.

“We are going to formulate a guideline to bring these vehicles under regulation and to determine which vehicles can be operated and which cannot,” he said.

Last year, the ministry took a move to bring electricity-run vehicles under a regulation and BRTA formulated a draft guideline. 

A four-member team comprising officials from the division and BRTA has already visited India to observe the registration process first-hand and operation of electricity-run vehicles.

However, the issue has not been finalised yet, a BRTA official said.

Nazrul Islam said the two guidelines are different: one for locally-made slow-moving vehicles while another for electricity-run vehicles, number of which has been rising globally and in Bangladesh as well.