The much-talked-about Road Transport Act 2018 is yet to be fully implemented even though almost three years have passed by after the law was enacted while indiscipline and chaos on the roads have increased.

This year the authorities have taken an initiative to amend the act following proposals from transport owners and workers for modifying 31 sections of the law to reduce punishments.

Road Transport and Highways Division secretary Md Nazrul Islam told New Age on Thursday that they were likely to send the draft amendment proposals to the Cabinet Division on Sunday.

Road transport experts and rights activists said that indiscipline and chaos on the roads had taken a worse turn over the past three years, adding that the disorder and chaos in the road transport sector would not diminish without the implementation and enforcement of the law.

The overall road safety situation has worsened as the Covid outbreak increased poverty across the country pushing up the number of illegal vehicles on the roads, they also said.

According to Bangladesh Police statistics, 2,673 people were killed and 2,699 injured in 2,846 road accidents till June 2021.

The presence of various illegal vehicles like battery-run three-wheelers and rickshaws has increased recently even on the capital’s roads in the absence of the full enforcement of the law.

Reckless driving and competition among bus drivers, not abiding by designated stoppages, driving vehicles that are not fit and driving without licences or with inappropriate ones and illegal parking are continuing as usual on the roads across the country. 

Earlier, on September 19, 2018, Jatiya Sangsad passed the Road Transport Bill replacing the Motor Vehicles Ordinance 1983 in the wake of a countrywide student protest after two college students were killed by a reckless bus in Dhaka on July 29 of the year.

Transport workers enforced strikes in different districts against the enactment of the law, following which road transport and bridges minister Obaidul Quader on February 17, 2019 formed a three-member committee.

The committee comprising home minister Asaduzzaman Khan, law minister Anisul Huq and railways minister Nurul Islam Sujan was asked to submit recommendations with respect to the amendments to the law demanded by the transport leaders.

The new law came into effect on November 1, 2019, more than 13 months after it was passed.

Immediately after that, transport owners and workers called a countrywide strike and following that some decisions were taken on November 21, 2019 at a meeting chaired by home minister Asaduzzaman Khan.

According to the decisions, the drivers could drive any vehicle with their existing licences till June 30, 2020 and by that time they would have to obtain appropriate licences from the Bangladesh Road Transport Authority while they would drive by showing the receipt they would obtain against their applications for appropriate driving licences.

Earlier, on August 28, 2018, the BRTA in a circular said that the public transport drivers with legal professional driving licences for light vehicles and a minimum one-year experience would be allowed to apply for driving licences for medium vehicles and those with driving licences for medium vehicles and a minimum one-year experience would be eligible for getting driving licences for heavy vehicles.

Till June this year, the deadline was extended eight times while Road Transport and Highways Division secretary Md Nazrul Islam confirmed that the drivers were still getting the opportunity for changing licences and for driving by showing receipts against the licences applied for.

At the November 21, 2019 meeting the owners were granted waiver of all fines for renewing papers of vehicles till June 2020. The deadline was later extended in two phases till June this year.

Nazrul Islam said that they had already sent a proposal to the finance ministry to extend the waiver of fines for renewal of papers of vehicles till December this year.

Meanwhile, on April 13 this year, a draft proposal for 31changes to the transport law, including reducing punishments for offences relating to accidents, was uploaded on the website of the Road Transport and Highways Division and after getting 62 feedbacks from various individuals and organisations, the division on August 31 held an inter-ministerial meeting on the draft.

‘There is no want of laws in Bangladesh but there is lack of implementation and enforcement of these laws,’ said Md Shamsul Hoque, professor of the civil engineering department at Bangladesh University of Engineering and Technology.