Bangladesh News

Having failed to introduce the five computerised Vehicle Testing Centres (VTC) set up in 2000 at a cost of Tk 41 crore, the BRTA (Bangladesh Road Transport Authority) is now getting a loan of Tk 3.5 crore from the Asian Development Bank (ADB) to make the centres functional.
Aiming at ensuring a clean environment and reducing vehicular accidents, the VTCs were set up with top-of-the-rank equipment to test vehicles at BRTA offices and issue fitness certificates.

Two VTCs were built in Dhaka and one each in Khulna, Chittagong and Rajshahi but not a single fitness certificate was issued from these centres.

The BRTA officials held “failure of the contractor and the supplier to hand the facilities over to the authorities after test runs” responsible for this.

The new project will also pave the way for privatising the vehicle testing mechanism, where BRTA officials will only be responsible for issuing fitness certificate on the basis of the test certificate, ADB sources said.

At present up to 200 vehicles are manually tested at the BRTA’s Mirpur office daily. The entire process of getting a fitness test at the Mirpur centre takes minutes, as busy inspectors seem to know the condition of a vehicle ‘with a glance at it’.

The job of ‘vehicular fitness certificate’ issuance is so lucrative that the authorities will have to be extremely careful to introduce the VTCs, said sources at Mirpur test centre.

“Last time in 2000 when the VTCs were about to be introduced, the same gangs were hell-bent to stop them functioning, this time things will not be different,” said an official requesting anonymity.

“The people working here to test vehicles will never want a change. Why would these inspectors allow a machine to take over what they have been fattening themselves with?” said the source.