¶¶Òõ¾«Æ·

Over 80,000 buses and trucks, which have gone past their economic life, are still plying across the country, causing environmental pollution and road accidents.

Like the ousted Awami League-led government, the interim government has set several deadlines to drive these vehicles off the street, but the buses and trucks are still running on roads, flouting the existing law.

The interim government assumed office on August 8, 2024, after the ouster of the authoritarian Awami League regime in a mass uprising.

After two deadlines, the interim government set the third deadline on July 19 and issued order that they would start removing these vehicles from roads from July 20.

Leaders of the Bangladesh Road Transport Owners’ Association, the leading association in the country for the transport owners, warned that if the government started evicting all outdated buses and trucks from roads at the same time, the owners might hold a countrywide movement.

They are now also demanding the extension of the economic life of the buses and goods-laden vehicles by five years each.

The bus and truck owners in Chattogram, however, on July 15 announced a 24-hour suspension of all services in Chattogram and five surrounding districts for July 20, protesting at the government move.

On Thursday, they postponed the programme, saying that the government invited them to a meeting on July 20 to review their demand on the extension of economic life of the vehicles.  

The situation mimicked the same picture of the road transport sector in the past 15 years till the ouster of the Sheikh Hasina-led government on August 5, 2024.

The adviser for the road transport and bridges ministry, Muhammad Fouzul Kabir Khan, on Wednesday alleged that the bus owners did not replace the outdated buses and trucks even after they were given several months to do the replacement.

‘Our objective is not to evict all the outdated vehicles and we do not have space for keeping so many vehicles too,’ he said, adding, ‘we want replacement of these vehicles.’

He said that they wanted to motive the transport owners.

‘So, we will go slowly by removing the oldest vehicles first,’ he added.

According to the Bangladesh Road Transport Authority, till May this year a total of 85,198 buses and minibuses and 2,14,445 trucks, covered vans and tankers have been registered under it since the entity started its operations in 1988. The BRTA still has no data on the phased out vehicles registered under it.

Out of these registered vehicles, 39,169 buses and minibuses are older than 20 years, and 41,140 trucks, covered vans and tankers are older than 25 years across the country, said BRTA director for engineering Sitangshu Shekhar Biswas.

Earlier on October 24, 2024, the environment, forest, and climate change adviser Syeda Rizwana Hasan said that an ultimatum of six months was given to the owners for replacing the buses and minibuses crossing 20 years in the Dhaka city with environment-friendly vehicles.

On December 19, after an inter-ministerial meeting in the presence of leaders of the transport owners’ associations, the road transport adviser announced that from May 2025, the buses and minibuses, older than 20 years, and the trucks, older than 25 years, would be made off street.

At the time, the officials also said that to facilitate the transport owners, they would discuss with the authorities concerned to allow the owners to take bank loans with low interest rate. 

Following the request from the transport owners for more time to replace the old vehicles, the government deferred the deadline and set July 1 to start drive.

The Road Transport and Highways Division under the road transport ministry on June 19 issued a circular, saying that following the Road Transport Act 2018’s section 36 the government had set the economic life of the buses and minibuses at 20 years and the economic life of the goods-laden vehicles, including trucks and covered vans, at 25 years.

It also read that the order would be in effect from July 1 this year.

The government, however, deferred the date of July 1 to remove the old vehicles from roads to July 20 again.

Fouzul Kabir told ¶¶Òõ¾«Æ· on July 10 that they had deferred the deadline again as the home affairs ministry officials requested them to do so for smooth observance of the programmes to mark the July mass uprising.

Against this background, the Greater Chattogram Public and Goods Transport Owners Federation on Tuesday at a press conference urged the owners and workers of all types of vehicles to observe the strike for July 20 in the division, demanding the suspension of the government notification regarding the ‘economic life’ of vehicles and amendments and revision of the provisions of the 2018 law that allegedly go against the interests of transport owners and workers.

On Thursday, at an emergency meeting in Chattogram, Bangladesh Road Transport Owners’ Association president Kafil Uddin Ahmed said that the government invited them to attend a meeting in Dhaka on July 20 regarding their demands, including a review of the ‘economic life’ policy.

Adviser Fouzul Kabir Khan, however, told ¶¶Òõ¾«Æ· on Thursday, ‘We will discuss with the transport leaders on July 20 about introducing rapid passes in buses,’ adding that ‘at the meeting, they can raise their other demands, but holding discussion on the extension of economic life of vehicles is not set.’ 

The owners’ association secretary general, Md Saiful Alam, earlier said that they did not call any strike on July 20 centrally.

He alleged that the government had yet to take any step to allow the owners to take bank loans with low interest rate.

The owners demanded the extension of the economic life of the buses and trucks by five years each, the scrapping of guidelines that call for replacing outdated buses and goods-laden vehicles with new vehicles and allowing them to run the vehicles till these become fit for running.

‘We do not want to call a strike,’ Saiful Alam said, adding, ‘but there is possibility of movement if the government tries to remove all vehicles at the same time.’   

Earlier in May 2023, the road transport ministry set the same economic life of buses and goods-laden vehicles but backtracked on implementing the order from August same year and put the order on hold amid pressure from the transport associations.