Swift and Surgical
actions to cut away rickshaws from city life, drastically, would be a sheer imprudent exercise. Phasing out of rickshaws from the city gradually can be thought of only after streamlining the public transport systems
in the city
Dealing with rickshaws pragmatically
According to a BUET study, there are only 80,000 licensed rickshaws in Dhaka city. The last time the Dhaka City Corporation provided licenses to rickshaws was in 1987. With the burgeoning population in the metropolis the number of rickshaws is also increasing phenomenally. Since the number of short distance and long distance public vehicles like buses, minibuses and human haulers are inadequate in number to meet the requirements of the commuters, the latter have become dependent on rickshaws. In fact, rickshaws have become a part of life and seem indispensable for the city dwellers.
The majority of the city dwellers have to depend on rickshaws for going from one place to another. Had there been adequate number of public buses and other vehicles the city dwellers could have saved a significant amount of their incomes that are spent to pay rickshaw fares. As there is a high demand for rickshaws their number is swelling with every passing day. Using multipliers (two pullers engaged to a rickshaw) we can say about 20 lakh pullers and their family dependents numbering about 60 to 80 lakh people, subsist from this sector. They are self-employed. No government or private sector could provide employments to such a huge number of people. Rickshaws are environment friendly; they do pollute with exhaust fumes rather they achieve a great deal of import substitution by making unnecessary liquid fuel imports. As rickshaws can move along main roads, lanes and by-lanes people in greater numbers find it convenient to travel on them. Besides, there are old and ailing people who cannot board buses and other public vehicles. So, rickshaws are the last resort for them. Taking all these into considerations, swift and surgical actions to cut away rickshaws from city life, drastically, would be a sheer imprudent exercise.
Phasing out of rickshaws from the city gradually can be thought of only after streamlining the public transports in the city. As a short term solution excusive rickshaw lanes can be set up on roads leaving the rest road spaces for movement by faster motorized vehicles. The traffic policemen will have to play a vital role in this regard.
