Unfit Vehicles: Quader slams BRTA, police

Road Transport and Bridges Minister Obaidul Quader yesterday questioned the role of police and BRTA in checking unfit vehicles on roads and asked them to go tough on such vehicles.

He was speaking to journalists while inspecting a drive of Bangladesh Road Transport Authority (BRTA) at the motor workshops where unfit vehicles are mainly painted to make them appear as fit in the capital's Matuail.  

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He said there would be no traffic jam because of road condition during Eid journey. But unfit vehicles may create tailbacks, said Quader.

“If an unfit vehicle goes out of order on a road during Eid journey, it will create a huge tailback as it takes long time to repair it,” he said.

Calling upon police and the BRTA to take necessary actions against the unfit vehicles, the minister said it was the duty of BRTA to take action against such motor workshops. 

He said the drive would continue.

During the drive at 14 such motor workshops in Matuail, a BRTA mobile court sent two vehicles to a dumping ground as they had no fitness certificates. The court also fined a workshop owner Tk 80,000 for running it illegally.  

Traffic jams are also created due to driving on wrong sides by both general and influential people, said Quader.

Urging the authorities not to encourage influential people to drive vehicles on wrong sides, he said it was not acceptable to cause sufferings to hundreds of thousands of people to make only 10 VIPs happy.

Quader also called upon utility service providers in the capital not to dig roads before and a few days after Eid-ul-Fitr.

“People of the city are facing immense sufferings due to the road diggings. So, this work will have to be suspended now.”

He also asked Dhaka South City Corporation and Bangladesh Telecommunications Company Ltd to repair Demra road immediately.