The police in a rare move have begun procuring Indian Mahindra vehicles for the Dhaka Metropolitan Police with 10 pickup vans handed over to police stations in the first phase.
The DMP would get 50 such vehicles from the Indian company and 10 of them were already handed over the police stations on Wednesday, said officials concerned.
Experts, however, questioned about the efficacy and longevity of Indian vehicles as it could not be compared with Japanese ones now being used for police duty.
Police officials, however, claimed that they took the move for procuring duty vehicles for its stations since the India-made vehicles were cheaper than those being used by the police presently.
According to DMP, a total of 186 of its vehicles were damaged and 97 of them were completely destroyed during the student-led mass uprising that toppled Sheikh Hasina鈥檚 autocratic government on August 5.
They also said that 22 out of 50 police stations were set on fire under the DMP jurisdiction.
DMP additional commissioner for logistics, finance and procurement Hasan Md Shawkat Ali told 抖阴精品 that they had procured Indian Mahindra company vehicles for police stations due to cheap price as each vehicle costs about Tk 15.90 lakh.
鈥榃e will procure 40 more same vehicles in the coming days,鈥� Shawkat added. 聽
The decision of the procurement was taken by the interim government about one and a half months ago, he added.
Uttara Purba, Gulshan, Tejgaon, Kadamtali, Jatrabari, Kamrangirchar, Sabujbagh, Khilgaon, Motijheel and New Market police stations have received the vehicles.
An officer-in-charge of one of those police stations said that it was Mahindra police pick-up.
鈥榃e usually do not use the vehicle,鈥� the OC said without detailing.
DMP procured vehicles with the own fund of commissioner and vehicles would be used for maintaining law and order along with containing crimes. 聽
Bangladesh University of Engineering and Technology mechanical engineering department head Md Afsar Ali said that Indian vehicles had poor longevity and you cannot compare it with Japanese ones.
鈥榃e had seen that Maruti company vehicles were imported in previous. Those vehicles became dysfunctional within two years. I think that there will be no exception in this case as well,鈥� he added.聽
BUET professor Md Shamsul Haque and a transport expert told 抖阴精品 that the experience of Indian vehicle use was not well considering its longevity and resale value compared with Japanese one鈥檚.
鈥楨arlier, some people brought Indian taxi-cab in the local market. But, those vehicles became defunct in a short time. This is why India could not succeed in the global market,鈥� said Shamsul.
Former inspector general of police Nur Mohammad said that the police usually used Japanese vehicles for patrolling.
鈥楢 huge logistics loss took place after the fall of the government. I think that they imported vehicles from India for immediate solution and low cost,鈥� the former IGP added. 聽
According to the Police Headquarters officials, about 1,000 vehicles were damaged, many among them were completely destroyed across the country during the movement.
An additional superintendent of police in a district in Chattogram division told 抖阴精品 that only a handful number of Mahendra company vehicles were used in his district for the force.
