8 zones for e-rickshaws
Battery-powered and electric rickshaws will be barred from Dhaka’s main roads under a proposed regulatory policy, while registered e-rickshaws carrying up to four passengers will be allowed to operate on internal roads within designated zones, State Minister for Local Government, Rural Development (LGRD) and Co-operatives Mir Shahe Alam said on Sunday.
The move comes amid growing concerns over Dhaka’s unregulated growth of battery-powered vehicles, inadequate traffic management and the environmental impact of poorly planned charging infrastructure.
Speaking to reporters after a meeting between Malaysian High Commissioner to Bangladesh Mohd Shuhada Othman and LGRD and Co-operatives Minister Dr Abdul Moyeen Khan at the Secretariat, Shahe Alam said the policy for regulating auto-rickshaws was at the final stage and would soon be sent to the Law Ministry for vetting.
“Once it comes back after vetting, we will issue it within a week or the following week, as quickly as possible,” he said, adding that the policy would bring battery-powered rickshaws and e-rickshaws under a regulatory framework.
Under the proposed policy, registration of e-rickshaws will require certification from Bangladesh University of Engineering and Technology (BUET), engineering universities, or automobile departments of government polytechnic institutes at the district level.
A fitness certificate from the traffic department will also be mandatory.
“We will not provide registration without certification from BUET, engineering universities, and the automobile departments of government polytechnic institutes at the district level, as well as fitness certification from the traffic department,” Shahe Alam said.
City corporations and municipalities will issue the registrations.
The policy will also regulate charging facilities, with the government planning to gradually introduce solar-powered charging stations and eventually make solar charging mandatory.
Charging points will require licences from the relevant city corporation or municipality.
The proposed solar-charging requirement could help reduce the environmental footprint of e-rickshaws, particularly as the rapid expansion of battery-powered transport has taken place without adequate planning for energy use, charging infrastructure, waste batteries and vehicle standards.
Shahe Alam said e-rickshaws were being manufactured indiscriminately at various locations, including Dhaka, while the government had no specific data on the number of factories producing them.
Under the proposed framework, manufacturers will also have to be registered and licensed. Factories producing e-rickshaws based on designs certified by BUET or engineering universities will have to obtain licences from the relevant city corporation or municipality.
The policy also proposes dividing Dhaka into eight zones – four in the north and four in the south – based on a proposal from the traffic department. Each zone will have a separate colour code, and e-rickshaws registered in one zone will not be permitted to operate in another.
City corporations and the traffic department will jointly determine the routes on which the vehicles can operate, while geofencing technology will also be introduced to restrict their movement.
The zoning plan reflects the scale of the capital’s transport-management problem, where different categories of vehicles compete for limited road space and informal transport services have expanded faster than regulatory systems.
The state minister said e-rickshaws would not be allowed on major roads but could operate on internal roads within designated zones.
“We will not allow e-rickshaws on the main roads. We will create eight zones so that they can operate on internal roads,” he said.
He said introducing separate rickshaw lanes on major roads and ensuring orderly passenger boarding and drop-offs would be difficult and time-consuming.
On passenger capacity, Shahe Alam said e-rickshaws would be divided into three categories.
In Dhaka, only vehicles carrying two or four passengers would be eligible for registration, while six-passenger e-rickshaws would be excluded from the registration system of the two city corporations.
“We will not bring any six-passenger vehicle or e-rickshaw under the registration system of the Dhaka city corporations,” he said.
However, e-rickshaws carrying two, four or six passengers would be eligible for registration for operation in rural areas and on rural roads in district towns.
The proposed restrictions seek to bring some order to Dhaka’s rapidly expanding battery-powered transport sector, but the policy also highlights a wider failure of urban transport planning.
Without reliable data on manufacturers and vehicles, properly licensed charging infrastructure, enforceable technical standards and coordinated route management, regulation alone may struggle to address the capital’s persistent congestion, road-safety problems and environmental pressures.
