3-wheeler ban on highway barely implemented

Movement of slow-moving three-wheelers, including those carrying cattle, alongside fast moving buses, trucks and cars, poses risk of accidents on Dhaka-Saidpur-Panchagarh highway, especially to homebound passengers ahead of the Eid-ul-Azha.

Three-wheelers like battery-run easy bikes and rickshaw vans, shallow pump-run locally made nosimon, korimon, votvoti and Indian mahindra are regularly seen on the busy road although the government recently banned their movement on highways.

"Unequal competition among vehicles with different speed capacities creates a haphazard situation on highways and it is responsible for most of the accidents that rises during several days before and after the Eid," said Abu Hasan, a forefront activist of 'Nirapod Sarak Chai' movement in Nilphamari.

In last three months, at least 20 people were killed and over a hundred others injured in collisions between three-wheelers and trucks and buses on the highway from Rangpur to Panchagarh via Nilphamari, said locals and police.

"The Roads and Highways Department (RHD) has detected 19 accident prone black spots in the 140-kilometre segment of Dhaka-Saidpur-Panchagarh highway in Rangpur division. But innumerable three-wheelers, many laden with cattle, are moving through the risky places," said Shahjahan Chowdhury, president of Nilphamari district motor owners group.

Abu Taleb, president of district easy bike drivers association, said, "Three wheelers carry passengers from remote places of towns and rural areas and all such roads ultimately connect with highways. It creates employment for thousands of youths."

Instead of banning three-wheelers on highways, the government should construct separate lanes for them, he said.