Auto rickshaw drivers block a key road intersection in Dhaka on May 19, 2024, during a protest to condemn a ban on battery-run rickshaws by the Bangladesh Road Transport Authority (BRTA). (Photo: AFP)
Ariful Islam heaved a sigh of relief on May 20 when the Bangladesh government lifted a ban on battery-run three-wheelers from the streets of the national capital, Dhaka.
Islam, 24, was frustrated when the ban was imposed five days earlier. Authorities called the electric vehicles illegal, unsafe, and a cause of traffic congestion in the city of more than 20 million people.
According to a trade union representing the drivers, the decision was a bolt from the blue for two million drivers like Islam who earn a livelihood for their families using several types of battery-powered vehicles, a cheap mode of transport for millions in Dhaka and across Bangladesh.
“People like me cannot afford five days of no work. I have a family of six to feed,” Islam told UCA News, adding that he borrowed about 1,200 taka (US$12.80), the equivalent of two days’ income, to buy food for the family.
As he thought the ban was permanent, he desperately looked for alternative jobs, but in vain.
The ban came as millions in the impoverished South Asian nation struggled against price hikes because of economic downturns and staggering inflation.
After the ban was imposed, hundreds of angry drivers blocked parts of Dhaka to demand its lifting, leading to huge traffic gridlocks.
Protests turned violent as police attempted to break up the rallies, leaving dozens injured or arrested.
As the protests grew, Road and Transport Minister Obaidul Qader announced lifting the ban, saying Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina's government reconsidered the decision because of the country's economic situation.
However, he did not elaborate on whether the government plans to make the vehicles safer by enforcing compliance mechanisms and monitoring.
Unfounded blames
For Islam, driving an electric rickshaw has been a form of liberation from extreme poverty.
He earns about 20,000 taka ($170) monthly after paying the vehicle owner a daily rent of 400 taka.
Born into an impoverished family in Dhaka and now based in the northern part of the city, Islam did not attend a regular school.
His poor parents sent him to a free madrasa (Islamic school), where he memorized the Quran with his classmates.
With his vehicle, he can make twice the money he could possibly make from other jobs, such as a wage-labor or pedal-powered rickshaw puller.
He risked losing all if the ban had been enforced without compensating the affected drivers.
The state-run Bangladesh Road Transport Authority (BRTA) did not provide any evidence when it blamed battery-powered rickshaws for deteriorating road safety amid increasing accidents and deaths on roads.
Observers say authorities failed to show that rickshaws were unfit for public transport. Public transport drivers in Dhaka are notorious for reckless driving, which causes most accidents.
Government crackdowns on battery and pedal-powered rickshaws are not new in Bangladesh.
The government passed the Road Safety Act in 2018 following massive nationwide protests over rising road crashes and deaths. The law makes driving battery-powered and non-motorized vehicles illegal and a punishable offense.
The law came three years after the Road and Transports Ministry banned these vehicles on 22 national highways.
However, the ban was never adequately enforced, allowing these vehicles to continue as many in villages prefer them as an accessible mode of transport.
'Ludicrous policies'
In a country known for rampant corruption, battery-run vehicles became a source of extortion money for police across Bangladesh.
“We bribe police all the time,” said Rakib Ahmed, the owner of a three-wheeled rickshaw garage in Badda, which has 100 rickshaws.
He claimed that every week, the police took 600 taka from each rickshaw driver to allow them on the roads.
After the ban was enforced on May 15, police reportedly went on a spree, confiscating rickshaws and releasing them for high fees equivalent to US$26-34 per rickshaw.
The ban was “ludicrous,” said Hasan Mehedi, secretary of the Bangladesh Working Group on Ecology and Development, a platform for green activists.
He said three-wheeler electric vehicles helped mitigate a public transport shortage, allowing ordinary people to move relatively comfortably at a reasonable cost than using crowded, rickety old buses.
He added that electric vehicles reduced the use of diesel-powered transport, which is way too expensive and damaging to the environment.
Their contributions are so undeniable that in February, the state minister for power and energy, Nasrul Hamid, called them the "Tesla of Bangladesh" in reply to a call raised in parliament to ban them.
He told lawmakers that electric-powered vehicles are four times more efficient than conventional oil-based ones.
The minister also said that electric vehicles are one-fifth less expensive than oil-based vehicles and that there are four million three-wheeler electric vehicles in the country.
Nature-friendly employment
Abdul Hasib Chowdhury, who teaches electrical and electronic engineering at Bangladesh University of Engineering and Technology (BUET), said mechanical faults in electric vehicles can easily be fixed.
He said there was no point in obstructing the use of electric vehicles, adding that the three-wheelers might not be fit for highway operation, but they were fine to use on other roads.
If the ban is imposed, some people will be forced to return to manual rickshaws, which experts say is a waste of labor and energy.
Ziaur Rahman Khan, another teacher at BUET, said replacing lead batteries with lithium-ion batteries in electric three-wheelers could significantly reduce environmental concerns.
Some energy experts likened the decision to ban electric rickshaws to declaring war on the poor, mainly when importing electric rickshaws and vehicles, which is still permitted.
Electric rickshaws are sold online for between $800 and $2,400, mostly manufactured in China.
Last month, a Bangladeshi conglomerate struck a deal with a Chinese company to supply two and three-wheeler vehicles to Bangladesh.
The government "allows the import of three-wheeler electric vehicles but cracking down on their users,” said Rukshana Asha Afroz, treasurer of a Dhaka-based trade union called Rickshaw, Battery Rickshaw, Van and Easy Bike Sangram Parishad.
“The state is supposed to create employment for people. Instead, it tries to ruin employment and livelihoods,” she said.
