Illegal easy-bikes plaguing Ctg city

Easy bikes plying Chittagong city roads rampantly. Allegation runs rife that police turn a blind eye to the illegal practice receiving kickbacks. The photo was taken near Katgar in the city. Photo: Prabir Das

The number of unauthorised battery-run three-wheelers, known as easy-bikes, has almost tripled in Chittagong city in the last two years with the authorities turning a blind eye to the situation.
According to easy-bike owners associations, more than 1,500 easy-bikes now ply the roads of the port city. But in 2012, the number was only around 500.
In Katgor, a locality in the city's southern part, more than 1,000 easy-bikes now ply five different routes while only around 300 used to ply about two years ago.
According to the Motor Vehicles Ordinance 1983, no motor vehicle can ply without six documents -- registration, fitness certificate, tax token, route permit, insurance certificate and driving licence. But the easy-bikes have none of these.
Sources at the Power Development Board (PDB) said each of the auto-bikes is run by five rechargeable batteries and has to be charged eight hours daily.
With the amount of electricity needed to recharge the five batteries of an easy bike, some 34 energy bulbs of 23 watts each can be lit for eight hours, mentioned the PDB sources.
There are two huge garages for these auto-bikes in Controller Mor and Rajarpukur areas. The locals alleged that the vehicles are charged at night through illegal connections taken from the nearby electric poles which frequently causes the transformers of the areas to be overloaded and burn out.
The PDB sources also admitted that the illegal consumption of electricity is affecting the power supply as well as the transformers.  
The vehicles also ply in the city's Chawkbazar, Anderkilla, Halishahar, EPZ, Saltgola Crossing, Kattali, Alanker, Karnaphuli and City Gate areas and use the roads for easy-bikes' stands, leading to heavy traffic chaos.
An auto-bike can accommodate four passengers, but those are seen carrying nine passengers at a time which is risky as their structures are comparatively very shaky, said locals.
Md Jamal Uddin, assistant director (engineering) of BRTA, said, “The vehicles are not only illegal but also unfit because their body is very rickety.”
Admitting that they have no valid documents, Kamal Uddin, general secretary of East Katgor Easy-Bike Owners' Association, said they are operating the vehicles “by paying regular bribes”.
“Initially, police would obstruct us from running the vehicles on the roads, but after we obliged to pay them monthly Tk 300 per vehicle they stopped interfering. Since then easy-bikes are plying the main roads without any obstruction,” Kamal added.
When asked whom they pay the bribe to, Abu Roman Kaiser, vice president of the association, and many drivers said the money is given to Abdul Barek, councillor of ward no-40, every month, which he later distributes among Patenga police and traffic inspectors.
Roman also said in 2012 when police started seizing their vehicles, they went to the councillor for help and he negotiated with the then officer-in-charge of Patenga Police Station for ignoring such vehicles in exchange for bribes.
However, Barek denying his involvement in taking and distributing money, said, “It is true that I told the OC and traffic inspector for not seizing the three-wheelers; otherwise the poor drivers and owners would have starved to death.”
About the bribe, he said it is “natural” that police would take bribes as the three-wheelers are illegal.
“If you involve me in this matter now, I will have no option but to ask the police to take stern action against the vehicles which will eventually stop the earnings of the poor drivers and owners”, he added.
Kazi Shahabuddin Ahmed, OC of Patenga Police Station, denied the allegation of taking bribes and said traffic inspectors handle the matter, not his department.
The easy bikes are multiplying because, BRTC official Jamal Uddin said, they have a crisis of manpower to take action against the vehicles. Traffic police have been ordered by the BRTA head office to be strict now, he added.
Contacted, Md Sujayet Islam, deputy commissioner traffic (Port) of Chittagong Metropolitan Police, said they have ordered all nine traffic inspectors and 55 sergeants of their areas to seize easy-bikes found on the main roads. They have seized seven to eight vehicles in the last two months, he said.
However, he also said the allegation of taking bribes is baseless. Munshi Hafizur Rahman, traffic inspector of Katgor area, said they do not allow these vehicles to run on the main roads but admitted that the vehicles still manage to ply there.
He also denied taking bribes.