A extended dispute between the Bangladesh Twin carriageway Transport Authority (BRTA) and its contracted supplier, India-basically based entirely Madras Safety Printers (MSP), is exacerbating the wait conditions for applicants searching for orderly riding licence playing cards.
The backlog of purposes for these most famous playing cards has now reached 610,000, with out a guarantee as to when applicants will win their playing cards.
As per BRTA files, MSP is required to bring 4 million orderly playing cards by July 2026 below the terms of their Tk 1.2 billion contract, signed in July 2020.
However, the supplier has reportedly delivered entirely half of this number to this level.
Compounding the bother, MSP has yet to job approximately 600,000 purposes.
BRTA officers show that MSP’s delays occupy seriously impacted their provider offer, while MSP contends that production is stalled resulting from unpaid bills by the BRTA.
Meanwhile, original purposes continue to flood in, encompassing novel purposes, renewals, and amendments.
For applicants, the extended stay wide awake for orderly riding licence playing cards creates a bunch of challenges.
Many narrative that their employment alternatives, both in authorities and deepest sectors, are hindered with out a sound orderly card.
MD Rayhan, a metropolis bike driver who utilized two years ago, expressed frustration over repeated encounters with visitors police unwilling to recognise non permanent documentation, time and yet again leading to fines or penalties.
In an are attempting to address these points, the BRTA has introduced an e-paper riding licence system, offering applicants a non permanent narrative with a QR code after they pass their riding exams.
Essentially based entirely totally on BRTA’s Director of Audit and Guidelines Mohammed Kamrul Islam this methodology serves as an intervening time resolution, allowing participants to pressure till they win their orderly playing cards.
“The supplier is restful struggling to meet their commitments, so we introduced this methodology in its put,” he acknowledged.
Historically, BRTA has relied on varied contractors for orderly card issuance. Sooner than MSP, local firm Tiger IT Bangladesh Tiny, in collaboration with a French firm, successfully fulfilled its settlement, offering approximately 1.5 million playing cards earlier than time desk resulting from excessive question.
The continuing disaster prompted the newly put in intervening time authorities to speak a shift in policy.
Taking dilemma of enterprise on August 8 after the ouster of the Awami League-led authorities, the administration declared an near the orderly card programme for riding licences, changing it with same old Polyvinyl Chloride (PVC) playing cards.
The delays in orderly card issuance reportedly date motivate to the tenure of aged Twin carriageway Transport and Bridges Minister Obaidul Quader, who allegedly faced accusations of preferential contract awards.
The bother of alleged corruption within the BRTA additionally looms sizable.
Transparency World Bangladesh (TIB) reported in 2021 that 83.1% of households experienced some invent of corruption when searching for a riding licence, with 83.7% relying on intermediaries or “brokers” to expedite products and companies.
Transferring forward, BRTA sources show that original applicants will win PVC playing cards while older applicants need to post their old playing cards.
However, there remains no particular timeline for when these will seemingly be issued.
