COMILLA: Comilla district police banned the movement of the battery-run auto-rickshaws and easy-bikes on the important roads of the city from Monday, reports UNB. Auto-rickshaws and easy-bikes will not be allowed to ply routes from Police Lines to Kandirpar, Adalat to Kandirpar, Sallahuddin Hotel to Kandirpar, Ranir Bazar to Kandirpar, Rajganj to Kandirpar in the city from today, police said on Sunday. Comilla district police administration took the initiative in order to reduce the increasing number of road accidents in the city caused by the battery-run auto-rickshaws and easy-bikes. Following the sudden closure of the movement of auto-rickshaws and easy-bikes on the important city thoroughfares, the city dwellers, common people, students and office goers are suffering much since morning.

Although the authorities concerned stopped providing the license of the battery-run auto-rickshaws, easy-bikes, the number of these types of vehicles is increasing alarmingly day by day, according to the Comilla City Corporation and Auto-rickshaw Owners’ Association.  Presently, around 7,500 illegal auto-rickshaws and easy bikes are plying the city streets while the number of these kinds of vehicles was approximately 3,500 in 2013. The battery-operated auto-rickshaws started movement in the city in the name of ‘Palli bikes’ with 4/5 hundred bikes in 2007.