The transportation landscape of Dhaka city has undergone a vast change of menacing order, thanks to unusual surge in the number of three-wheelers. Those are so ubiquitous that a pedestrian has to be highly cautious while crossing a road, street, lane or by- lane. In fact, Dhaka has witnessed a highly chaotic growth of three-wheelers on its streets in a short span of time and it is ever more growing day by day. The vehicle is called by people electric or e-rickshaw because electricity stored in a battery pack through charging turns a motor into mechanical power to drive the three-wheelers. The burgeoning auto-rickshaws seem to have gone beyond optimum number almost replacing their earlier version of pedal rickshaws which are on the verge of vanishing from the scene.
These vehicle are truly eco-friendly with having some advantages over the traditional pedicabs driven by human power. They have faster speed and need no hard labour on the part of the drivers to operate the vehicles. Now, in an indiscriminate competition, local craftsmen have fashioned crude versions of three-wheelers of all shapes and sizes to lure the commuters. They have contrived to enlarge the passengers’ carriage space. Then the uncountable existing rickshaws started converting into battery-powered ones.
What happens now in the indiscriminate and indiscreet competition to fashion contraptions of every description although initially the effort was limited to conversion of the traditional rickshaws into battery and motor-fitted ones. Now the hardy and steadier versions of the three-wheelers start arriving on the scene. Some have come up with radical ideas. The carriage area has been made spacious by giving it a completely new shape. No wooden carriage is there. But it is totally redesigned with motor cycle’s steering but broader wheels. While the rickshaws driven by batteries and motor rely on brakes on the front wheel like the pedal rickshaws, the newer contraption have brakes on the rear wheels as well. This gives the latter an advantage of halting the vehicle any time.
But the converted traditional rickshaws are unsafe as the speed and brake do not match each other. These vehicle are highly accident-prone. Aerodynamics of all such vehicle is not well- proportioned. Moreover, these vehicles are plying without licence, it is learnt.
At a time when a crude type of three-wheelers hit the streets of Dhaka City, the traffic police turned a blind eye to the new transports. But with the massive proliferation of such vehicles, the traffic police started taking action as those had no permission to run in the city. But now it is clear, the government shows no interest in controlling the mushroom growth of such vehicles. It seems no headache to the authorities concerned to see if the drivers of these three-wheelers are really fit and capable of driving in busy roads and streets. The authorities concerned subsequently did some groundwork in the shape of assigning the Bangladesh University of Engineering and Technology (BUET) to develop a model of e-rickshaw and the BUET has got the model done. But the authorities are delaying the process of approval and, meanwhile, mushroom growth of such vehicles will go on menacing people’s lives.
We hope, the government will soon take appropriate steps to control the unbridled proliferation of such mishap-prone three-wheelers pressed into service. We keep our fingers crossed.
