Bangladesh Road Transport Authority (BRTA) is set to complete all activities of issuing driving licences in just one day through its newly developed process flow.

Moreover, to make this service easier to avail, BRTA will deliver an applicant’s smartcard driving licence to their home against a fee of Tk 60 and bring an end to the suffering people have been going through for a long time to get their licences.

On Sunday, the Road Transport and Bridges Ministry reached out to the Finance Ministry seeking approval or no objection for this proposed fee to facilitate the service.

Once this new service is up and running, applicants will be able to complete all the activities required to get driving licences in one day. They will be able to get the smartcard licence delivered at home quickly by paying a small fee. This will significantly reduce people’s suffering, an official of the road transport ministry told The Business Post.

According to sources, the road transport ministry informed the Finance Ministry that at present, an applicant has to come to the BRTA office for five-seven days to get a driver’s licence, including one day for written, oral and field tests after getting the learner’s permit, one day to submit the second application after passing the tests and another day to provide their biometrics.

This makes an applicant spend a lot of money on travel and food while much time gets wasted. In some cases, they also get harassed and humiliated by brokers.

In line with the new process flow, the driving licence service can become simpler and it will be possible for the applicant to take the tests and provide their biometrics in one day. This will help the applicant save time and money while getting services without getting harassed or becoming corruption victims.

Developing the process

In October last year, a meeting was held between BRTA, Madras Security Printers, CNS Limited, Directorate of Posts and other concerned parties on making driving licence issuance easier. The meeting decided that the Directorate of Posts will help deliver the smartcard driving licences to all new applicants who applied online since November 16. The new process flow has been developed based on everyone’s feedback on that goal.

BRTA has already signed an MoU with the Election Commission to use the National Identity (NID) Card information to provide smartcard services. Also, the draft of another MoU between BRTA and the Posts Directorate has been finalised to have the smartcards delivered to applicants’ homes.

Under BRTA’s new process flow, it has been proposed that a minimum of Tk 55, including charges of the Posts Directorate, should be charged to collect NID Card information and send multiple SMS to the applicant customer.

Of that, postage (including insurance) will cost Tk 18, postal stationery Tk 20, departmental deposit Tk 7, NID Card information verification Tk 6 and SMS charge will be Tk 4.

However, the fee may increase for unsuccessful hits on NID Card information verification. With that in mind, the road transport ministry has proposed a total fee of Tk 60 including additional charges — in line with the recommendation BRTA Chairman Nur Mohammad Mazumder made to it on December 26.

It also sought the Finance Ministry’s opinion on creating a new sector for smartcard driving licence distribution and collecting fees from applicants.

Moreover, according to the agreement signed with Madras Security Printers, the printed licence smartcards will have to be delivered to all BRTA circle offices at the field level through courier and postal services.