Road Transport Act: Mad rush for updating docs at BRTA office

As the new Road Transport Act imposes tougher penalties on traffic rule violators, a huge number of people are thronging the Mirpur office of Bangladesh Road Transport Authority (BRTA) every day to have the documents of their vehicles renewed and keep those up to date.

Many people are visiting the office to get new driving licences and renew the old ones. Others are going there to get fitness or registration certificates of their vehicles.

BRTA officials said the number of service seekers increased significantly since Sunday, two days after the new law came into force. At some sections of the office, the number has almost doubled than the usual number of visitors in a single day.

This rise in the number of service seekers has put the BRTA officials under pressure. A similar situation was seen during the student movement for safe road in August last year.

Mohammad Morshedul Alam, assistant director of BRTA, said it was a positive sign that people were visiting their office to keep the documents up to date.

“As the penalties were nominal under the previous law, many did not care much about it. But people are now crowding our office as they fear that they might face tough penalties,” he told The Daily Star.

Visiting the BRTA office yesterday, this correspondent saw hundreds of people waiting in long queues at different counters for submitting documents and fees.

Besides, there were long queues of cars, motorcycles, trucks and covered vans. Drivers of the vehicles were waiting either to get digital number plates or to renew their fitness certificates.

Struggling to offer services to so many people, the BRTA has introduced a token system for the drivers.

BRTA officials said a shortage of manpower at the fitness test section led to the long queues. They said they had to compromise on the quality of their inspection due to the lack of manpower.

Car driver Faruk Hossain saw a long queue when he reached the BRTA office at 6:00am from the city’s Bangla Bazar area.

He could not even enter the office compound until 11:45am for having his car’s fitness tested.

“The car owner sent me here well ahead of November 25 when the car’s fitness certificate will expire,” he said.

Kamal Chowdhury, a driver of a private company in the city’s Uttara, went to the office to get a new driving licence as he lost the old one three months ago.

He said police fined him twice in the last three months for driving car without a licence, but he did not care much as the fine was nominal.

“The maximum fine is now Tk25,000. I am not capable of paying such a big amount. So I took a one-day leave from the office to collect my licence,” he told The Daily Star.

He had to spent almost three hours to get his job done.

Under the new Road Transport Act, the maximum penalty for driving without a licence is six months’ jail or a fine of Tk25,000 or both. The punishment will apply in a case for running an unfit vehicle. Under the previous law, the maximum fine for the offence was only Tk500.

Jahangir Alam, who has been a driver for about 15 years, said the provisions of fines in the new law were “illogical”. “I earn Tk15,000 a month. How will I maintain my family if the police fine me Tk10,000?”

“At times, the manual signals of the traffic policemen at the city’s roundabouts cannot be noticed. Police will fine us even if we move the vehicles a few yards ahead at the intersections unintentionally…. What will we do if they fine us under the new law?” said a worried Jahangir.

Another driver Milon went to the BRTA office to get the fitness certificate and digital number plate of a car. Expressing worries over the provisions of hefty fines in the new law, he said, “May be we will have no other option but to stop driving cars and start pulling rickshaws.”

He had to spend more than five hours at the office to get his job done.

The biggest crowd of service seekers was seen before the digital number plate section of the BRTA office.

BRTA official Rubel Hossain said a lot of people went to the office to collect digital number plates ahead of the scheduled date of delivery, fearing they might be fined.

On average, around 300 people used to apply for a learner’s driving licence daily. The number has almost doubled since Sunday, officials said.

Private university student Mahmudul Hasan was one of them.

“All the papers of my motorcycle are okay. I have received the learner’s licence today [yesterday], but I have to wait at least four months to sit for the test to get the licence,” he said.

Mahmudul earlier was fined Tk 400 for driving a motorbike without a licence. He has now decided that he will not drive the motorbike until receiving the licence as the fine for the committing the offence has gone up sharply.

The maximum punishment for driving a vehicle without a registration certificate is six months’ jail sentence or Tk50,000 in fine or both. The highest punishment for honking banned horns is three months’ jail term or Tk10,000 fine or both.

The new law says the maximum punishment for illegally modifying a vehicle’s body is three years’ jail sentence or Tk3,00,000 fine or both.

The authorities had earlier said they would not fine traffic rule violators under the new law for the first seven days. They said they would carry out campaigns to make people aware of the new rules.