Published in The Financial Express on Wednesday, 12 March 2014.
Dealing with ‘auto-rickshaws’ in Dhaka
Mashfique Ibne Akbar
Commuting around the streets of Dhaka city, one can vividly perceive the sheer increase in the number of auto-rickshaws in recent times. The term ‘auto-rickshaw’ is derived from traditional rickshaws which are automated and run on motors. With the recent innovation of the motor-run rickshaws, this specific kind has grown like mushrooms in the past couple of months. The increased velocity of such rickshaws is drawing more and more attention of the customers. The inherent love that Bengalis share with this mode of transport has gone one step further with the addition of ‘speed’ to transportation. People love the fact they can ride the conventional rickshaws and yet, at the same time, commute at shorter times.
On the supply side, the rickshaw pullers have also benefitted from avoidance of strenuous hardship of physical exercise. In fact, auto-rickshaw pullers are currently enjoying a higher social stigma as compared to the traditional counterparts. Hence, it can be preconceived upfront that the auto-rickshaw has benefitted our everyday life in each and every possible way – but is it essentially the case?
Let us probe the auto-rickshaw scenario from different viewpoints. Starting with the rule of law, the auto-rickshaws are running on the streets of Dhaka city without any legal permission or road permit. Apart from being illegal, the case, which also pertains to other non-motor rickshaws as well, is that the government is losing out on tax revenue. One of the quotes by Dwight D. Eisenhower is worth citing in this case: “The clearest way to show what the rule of law means to us in everyday life is to recall what has happened when there is no rule of law”. In our case, the line of differentiation cannot really be drawn between what is the rule of law and what is not. Can we really distinguish between the presence of the rule of law and the absence of it? It seems as if the law enforcement agencies are adopting Mahatma Gandhi’s ‘three monkey occurrence’ on the forefront, while taking an exactly opposite stance in the backdrop.
It should be recalled that the government enforced a ban on the import of battery-run three-wheelers as these consume a lot of electricity for the purpose of charging their rechargeable batteries. But are the auto-rickshaws being any different in charging their batteries illegally through the point of legal and/or prohibited electrical contacts? A very rough estimate shows that there are currently 60 to 70 thousand auto-rickshaws on the streets of Dhaka. Crunching numbers regarding typical battery voltages and electricity tariff rates of the Dhaka Electric Supply Company Limited (DESCO), it is found that the auto-rickshaws are eating up 2.5 per cent to 4.5 per cent of the Dhaka city’s daily electricity demand. With Taka 51.70 billion dedicated to subsidise the power sector in the outgoing fiscal, one ponders if we could really take further heat. In this context, it should be noted that the government is incurring an elevated bank-borrowing to finance the highly-subsidised quick-rental power plants.
An interrelated theme which should be mentioned at the outset is the natural gas predicament. There is no hint of doubt that the Bangladesh economy is heavily dependent on natural gas. It is not only the household connections, but it is the factories, cars and around 65 per cent of electricity generation which is extracted from this energy source. Hence, when one thinks that the auto-rickshaws are benefitting both the suppliers and the users, one should think again from the overall macro-economic perspective.
Coming to more hands-on problems regarding the safety and security issue, it is the case that the auto-rickshaws are not safe on the streets by any measure. This is because the braking system of the rickshaws has not been upgraded and is still up to the standards to cater to traditional speeds. Hence, the auto-rickshaws have become more accident prone as compared to the traditional ones. A couple of cases have already gone unnoticed in the political turmoil over the past couple of months. This is bound to be the case because once the auto-rickshaw pullers have the scope to attain higher speeds, they would definitely want to pick up the speeds for higher fare collection, for competition, out of enthusiasm – you name it, they will do it, given their history of traffic havocs!
A recent event by the Rickshaw Association of Bangladesh pressing their demand for eradicating the illegal auto-rickshaws caught this writer’s attention and motivated him to write this piece. Their demand is simple – if the illegal auto-rickshaws are not dealt with, then they should be allowed to run their rickshaws on batteries and that too legally. While these demands are being put on the table, there are other proponents who do not side with rickshaws in general. But the fact remains that the concept of rickshaws cannot be erased without rural development and the corresponding creation of jobs in the countryside. Leaving this topic to the future and focusing on the present, the question remains as to what would be the fate of the auto-rickshaws in the streets? Is it going to be the summer load shedding in the coming years that would put a ‘proper’ ban to this dilemma? Is it going to be the realisation of the keepers of the law to act accordingly or is it going to be the case which is most prevalent in our society – as long as it does not hamper me, let it be?
The writer is a Research Associate, the Centre for Policy Dialogue (CPD). akbar.mashfique@gmail.com