Ctg rickshaws come under digital registration

Chattogram City Corporation has taken steps to bring all rickshaws in the city under a digital registration system, with the aim of curbing illegal passenger carts and increasing its revenue. 

At the same time, the corporation is thinking of increasing the number of rickshaws in the port city. For the last eight years, it did not register any new rickshaw.

"City corporations in Dhaka have adopted digital registration systems for rickshaws. We are also introducing the system," Chattogram City Corporation Revenue Officer Syed Shamsul Tibriz told The Business Standard. 

"To this end, we have already fixed fees and taxes. An advertisement will be published soon calling for registration. The number of rickshaws in the city can also be increased depending on demand," he added.

According to official data, the city of 7 million people has some 70,000 rickshaws and 3,500 vans registered with the city corporation. The number of unregistered rickshaws is many times the actual number, stakeholders have said.

None of the authorities – the corporation, traffic department or rickshaw owners' association – can, however, mention the actual number. 

Under the new initiative, all rickshaws will have quick response or QR code-embedded digital number plates. The rickshaw pullers will have identity cards. 

To make this happen, the city corporation in March last year hired a firm, Chemist CGD Consortium, which also developed the digital rickshaw registration system for Dhaka North City Corporation. 

It has already prepared QR codes for one lakh rickshaws and 4,000 vans for Chattogram City Corporation. "We have collected data from books of the city corporation and preserved it in our [IT] server," said Chemist CGD Managing Partner Md Hasanuzzaman. 

"Now we are awaiting a deal between the city corporation and banks regarding the payment system of the registration," he told TBS. 

The applicants, including those who already own licences, will need to submit their national identification cards and photos to apply for the digital registration, he added, and noted that there would no longer be a scope of pulling rickshaws illegally.

Meanwhile, Chattogram City Corporation at a meeting on 14 November fixed Tk300 as the digital registration fee for a rickshaw or van for the next two years, out of which Chemist CGD will get Tk146. 

A fee of Tk100 will be applied for the renewal of a rickshaw and Tk200 for a van. Besides, rickshaw pullers will have to pay Tk50 as the identification card fee and Tk50 as the form fee. 

When contacted, Chattogram City Rickshaw-Owners Federation General Secretary Md Siddique Mia said, "We have no objection to the digital registration system but the city corporation must pull out illegal battery-run rickshaws."

The corporation is also determined to stop engine-run rickshaws in the port city. Instead, it mulls an introduction of solar-powered rickshaws. "We have already launched two [solar-powered] rickshaws on an experimental basis. A study is needed regarding its feasibility," Chattogram City Mayor Rezaul Karim Chowdhury told The Business Standard.

Some 16% of people in the port city regularly use rickshaws or auto-rickshaws, according to the Chattogram Strategic Urban Transport Master Plan 2018, while 1,019km out of 1,169 roads inside the city are open to such carts. ***