50,000 more rickshaws to get licence

"Only 89,000 rickshaws have licences and more than four lakh rickshaws are plying in Dhaka without licences. Rickshaws occupy a lot of space on the roads. They will have to ply in a disciplined way to remove traffic jams in Dhaka city," Communications Minister Nazmul Huda said yesterday.

He was speaking as the chief guest at a seminar on "Rickshaw ban in Dhaka city: an overview of arguments for and against," organised by Civil Engineering Division at Bangladesh Engineers' Institute.

Huda said the government has taken initiatives to reduce traffic jams in Dhaka city without throwing the lives of rickshaw-pullers in uncertainty. "The government is going ahead in a planned way to make the capital city suitable for living," he added.

He said rickshaws are an environment friendly transport and they are needed as the unemployed people use pull rickshaws to earn a living.