About 1,200 vehicles were given fitness certificates at two offices of Bangladesh Road Transport Authority (BRTA) in Dhaka in just 6 hours.

This incident happened at BRTA's Dhaka Metro Circle-2 (Ecuria) and Dhaka Metro Circle-4 (Purbachal) offices. In contrast, only 45 vehicles in the capital's busiest BRTA Mirpur Circle (Dhaka Metro-1) and only 27 vehicles in Uttara Office (Dhaka Metro-3) were given fitness certificates on the same day.

Bangladesh Pratidin's investigation said that 10 percent of the vehicles that have been given fitness certificates at the Ecuria and Purbachal BRTA offices did not appear directly. These missing vehicles have been given fitness certificates with vehicle registration numbers and financial benefits through brokers and other methods.

The investigation also revealed that six motor vehicle inspectors issued these fitness certificates at two BRTA offices that day. 9 am to 4 pm 7 working hours with 1 hour lunch break.

Accordingly, they gave the fitness certificate of a large number of cars in just 6 hours. The fitness certificate of each vehicle has been given in less than 2 minutes on average.

Transport experts said it is unusual for two BRTAs to issue fitness certificates for around 1,200 vehicles in just one working day. It is by no means possible to issue fitness certificates to a large number of vehicles in such a short amount of time and manpower in a proper manner.

They said that even if each vehicle is monitored for at least 5 minutes, it would take around 100 hours to issue the fitness certificate for the said number of vehicles. In addition to on-site vehicle inspection in the field, inspectors have filework to issue certificates of fitness. It is not clear how they inspected the vehicle and how they issued the license during this period.

BRTA officials said that a motor vehicle inspector must first check the engine of the vehicle to issue the vehicle fitness certificate. Then there is the obligation to test the car's color, body condition, different types of signal lights, smoke, head lights, brakes. As a result, at least 15 minutes will be required to properly inspect a vehicle.

According to the instructions, motor vehicle inspectors are also required to take selfies with the vehicle along with monitoring the file of each vehicle coming for fitness certificate renewal. However, the motor vehicle inspectors did ignore these rules and regulations at the two BRTA offices last Monday.

How to get so many fitness certificates in one day? When asked to know the answer to this question, GM Nadir Hossain, Assistant Director (Fitness) of Ecuria Office of BRTA told Bangladesh Pratidin, “We issue fitness certificate after inspecting each vehicle.”

When asked about the presence of the car mentioning the specific time, he avoided the matter. Later, he did not receive several calls on his mobile phone.

On the other hand, Assistant Director (Fitness) of BRTA's Purbachal office, Mohammad Nasir Uddin, told Bangladesh Pratidin that traffic pressure was high on Monday due to the strike on Sunday. BRTA usually has heavy traffic on the day after strike action.

Prof Dr Md Hadiuzzaman, transport expert and former director of Buet's Accident Research Institute (ARI) department told Bangladesh Pratidin, “Issuance of such a large number of fitness certificates in one day is quite unusual and unrealistic.”

“Fitness is a scientific subject. Many details need to be observed here. The fitness of a vehicle cannot be determined by looking at its exterior alone,” he said.

It is unimaginable to issue fitness certificate of 600-700 vehicles in one day from one office. It is not possible at all. It may be possible to give a large number of vehicles fitness if not checked properly. However, it is impractical and impossible to issue fitness certificates for 1,200 vehicles from two offices in a single day with proper verification in a scientific manner, Hadiuzzaman added.

(The report was published on print and online versions of The Bangladesh Pratidin on November 5 and rewritten in English by Tanvir Raihan)