The government will replace the Motor Vehicle Act 1983 with a new law called the 'road, transport and traffic act,' which is intended to meet the changing needs of modern traffic system, government officials concerned said.
A draft of the legislation has recently been sent to the Dhaka Transport Coordination Board for its consideration and to initiate a process of consultation.
Law enforcement officers told New Age that they hoped that it would clarify many areas of the law that are currently confusing or absent.
Under the clean air and sustainable environment project of the environment and forest ministry, the Dhaka Transport Coordination Board in March 2010 established a committee to draft a bill.
The draft committee's consultant Abdul Alim Bhuiyan told New Age that the current Motor Vehicle Ordinance 1983 was adapted from the Motor Vehicle Act 1939 which was enacted in the colonial period.
'Now, however, technology, communications systems and the traffic situation have so totally changed that the old act is no longer appropriate,' he said.
The new act would be entirely different including new sections on driving licences, vehicle insurance, and safety related measures, he added.
Abdul Alim also said that the proposed legislation was based on a review of different international laws.
The executive summary of the draft legislation states that 'the effectiveness of the [existing] law has eroded and if the current situation continues the present law … will have no relevance to the sector it is intended to regulated.'
It goes onto that at the very first meeting of the drafting committee it was observed that 'the structure and content of the MVO 1983 is so obsolete and redundant that it is a better option to prepare a new law … instead of updating [the old one].'
Whilst the MVO 1983 has 12 chapters. 183 sections and 12 schedules, the proposed new law has 22 chapters, 371 section and one schedule.
The law envisages that the Bangladesh Road Transport Authority will 'outsource' to other organisations the services it provides like issuance of motor vehicle licences, registration of motor vehicles and issue of fitness certificates and instead focus on its regulatory functions.
The draft contains new provisions to ensure that vehicles imported or locally made comply with the construction, weight equipment and emission standards and are fit for registration and use.
Provisions have also been made to regulate sale of parts, equipment and vehicle testing stations.
The legislation currently has no provision to regulate pedestrians and non-motorised transports, and the new draft proposes changes to this.
In relation to offences, the consultant said that that the proposed act divides offences into three categories - accidents resulting in death, accidents resulting in injury and basic traffic rule violation.
The highest sentence would be imprisonment for up to two years.
The DTCB's project director Mohammad Anisur Rahman said that the project had started in 2009 with DTCB, the Dhaka City Corporation and the environment and forest ministry jointly working together.
The project director said that some sections of the Motor Vehicle Act would remain in the proposed draft while many other new sections would be included.
'In the current law, there was nothing said on CNG-run auto-rickshaws, emergency vehicles and bus rapid transit systems,' he said.
The CASE project director, Mohammad Anisur Rahman, said that the proposed act was very necessary for the changing needs of the present time and added that they hoped the act would be enacted soon
The draft committee's consultant Abdul Alim Bhuiyan said that if anything was missed in the draft, they could be included in it after discussion.
Anisur said that a seminar would soon be called involving different pressure groups, the media and other authorities concerned to gather different views and comments.
Source : New Age
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