BRTA allows motorcycle ride sharing in areas under DTCA

Bangladesh Road Transport Authority (BRTA) has finally allowed ride sharing services to resume their motorcycle operations on condition of the operators following a set of health safety guidelines during the prevailing pandemic.

However, only 1,156 BRTA enlisted motorcycles of ride sharing services will be able to operate in the area under Dhaka Transport Coordinator Authority's (DTCA) jurisdiction.

The DTCA includes Dhaka, Gazipur, Narayanganj, Munshiganj, Narsingdi and Manikganj.

People of Chattogram and some other cities where the services were available during pre-Covid time, will not get the permission to resume as of yet.

BRTA issued a circular in this regard yesterday and has already served it to all the service providing companies, a BRTA official told The Daily Star today.

The development came two days after the government allowed buses and minibuses to carry passengers with full capacity from September 1 and reinstated previous fares.

Ride sharing services remained suspended from March 26 until June 21, although buses and other modes of public transport hit the roads on June 1.

Following the request of ride sharing companies such as Uber and Pathao, BRTA allowed only enlisted four wheelers to resume operation under the service from June 21.

But bikes were not allowed to resume the service, considering the risks of spreading coronavirus infection.

"As the government decided to normalise public transport services and already allowed buses and minibuses to operate with full capacity, we have decided to allow motorcycles [in ride sharing service] as well," another BRTA official said, wishing not to be named.

According to a BRTA document, there are some 1.23 lakh cars and motorcycles associated with different ride-hailing companies. Of them, 1.04 lakh are motorcycles.

However, so far some 9,000 cars and 1,156 motorcycles received the enlistment certificates, a mandatory condition to operate vehicles under the service, BRTA sources said.

"When BRTA made enlistment certificate a must for providing the service, some 1,300 vehicles had the certificate. The number of vehicles with the certificate has increased sharply after the decision and we hope the number of enlisted motorcycles will rise soon," the officials added.

BRTA also issued set of guidelines to be followed to provide ride sharing service through bikes during the coronavirus pandemic.

Both the biker and rider have to have masks, hand gloves, face-shields and use hand sanitiser. Both biker and passenger have to wear standard helmets and have to disinfect it after each trip. The biker will disinfect his or her bike before and disinfect passenger's bag if they are carrying any as well.

Legal action will be taken if the guidelines were not followed, reads the circular.