Unfit vehicles should be taken off the roads

In a new directive to vehicle owners, the High Court on July 23 instructed them to collect fitness certificates for their vehicles within two months. The HC also said that vehicles without valid documents will not be allowed to ply the roads after September 30. The directives are very timely, given that unfit vehicles are one of the major reasons for road accidents across the country.

Bangladesh Road Transport Authority (BRTA) estimates that a total of 4,79,320 vehicles without valid fitness certificates are running on the roads across the country—and of them 2,61,113 are operating in Dhaka division. What we do not understand is what the BRTA has been doing when these vehicles are running right under its nose. Tracking these vehicles and taking action against their owners should not be so hard since these vehicles are already registered. Also, why don’t the traffic police take any action against them? Although the BRTA has reportedly filed cases against many of these vehicle owners for not abiding by the rules and has also fined a number of them, as it seems, such actions are not enough to stop unfit vehicles from plying the roads.

The BRTA should exercise the power it has been given to make our roads safe for commuters. It should run mobile courts against unfit vehicles, as the court has directed, and also make sure that all the vehicles have their fitness checked and certificates renewed on time. Moreover, it should take stringent action against the drivers without valid driving licenses as well as the high number of vehicles that are not registered but are running on the roads.