CHATTOGRAM, Dec 24: Businesses, including trade body leaders, in the port city have expressed worries over rising incidents of robbery on the Dhaka-Chattogram Highway in the last several years.
After nearly two decades, gangs of robbers have regrouped and become active on the Dhaka-Chattogram highway by stopping trucks and covered vans loaded with imported goods and looting the shipments at gun points, traders and police said.
Traders said incidents of robberies decreased in the early 2000 after series of anti-robbers drives on the highway by members of Rapid Action Battalion, police and other lawenforcement egencies following a campaign launched by businesses, media and leaders and workers of the transport sector.
However, such incidents sharply increased on the country's important highway in the last five years and now reached a worrying level creating concerns among importers, transport leaders and other affected people of the society.
Some Chattogram-based importers said armed robbers waylay trucks and covered vans, especially those carrying goods imported for readymade garment (RMG) sector and steel mills at different points of the highway and swoop on the inmates of the vehicles brandishing firearms and sharp weapons. They then snatch money, mobile phones and other belongings from the helpless transport workers and then loot the goods from the vehicles.
Such incidents take place mostly in different areas of Chattogram's Mirsarai and Sitakunda areas, and Feni district where a large segment of the highway are located, business people said noting that the robbery incidents are rising despite establishing highway police and deploying the same by the authority on this highway over a decade ago.
The businesses also demanded immediate steps to start a fresh drive against highway robbers and installing CCTV cameras to re-ensure security on the highway.
However, a high official of the highway police said following a demand made earlier by leaders of business community and transport bodies, steps are under way to install 1,460 CCTV cameras at 490 spots of the 265-kilometre Dhaka-Chattogram Highway, including Mirsarai, Sitakunda and Feni.
He also said that the project, taken up several years ago at a cost of more than Tk 1.52 billion by the government, now is being implemented and hopefully will be completed within June next year.
Smart Group has been awarded the contract of installing the 1,460 cameras powered by electricity on the highway, he added.
An official of the Smart Group involved with the project said they got the work order for installing the cameras on the highway on June 23, 2021. The installation work was scheduled to be completed within June month of the current year. However, a large chunk of time was spent on reaching an agreement with the PDB and other concerned authorities of the government on this matter. After obtaining permission from a concerned government body, the contractor started works on setting up poles for installing cameras on them and supplying electricity to the equipment from PDB's power supply cables.
Sharif Sarwar, an official of the Smart Group and also the Project Director, said, "We have already got the permission to set up poles and completed agreement with PDB to ensure uninterrupted or random power supply to the CCTV cameras on the highway."
"We hope that we can complete the project within June, 2023," he added.
Officer in Charge of Sitakunda police station Belal Uddin said, "After setting up the cameras on the highway, robbery incidents will be curbed. Besides, it will help increase substantially monitoring on the Dhaka Chattogram Highway and control accidents."
Sources said, in the last two years, at least 200 incidents of robberies took place in Sitakunda and Mirsarai areas of the highway while scores more occurred at different spots of Feni. Recently, the incidents of looting of imported iron and scrap steel for several steel re-rolling mills have increased alarmingly. In most cases, robbers swoop on the running vehicles from Chittagong Port to Mirsarai areas, and also at many spots of the highway at Feni. Different orgenised gangs are involved with looting of imported iron sheets, scrap steels and rods while some other gangs are involved with looting of RMG items. The bandits first wait beside the road to waylay passing lorry or covered van loaded with the items and then, loot everything at gun point, transport leaders and importers said.
When contacted, Chittagog Chamber of Commerce and Industry President Mahabubul Alam acknowledged that highway robbery incidents are on the rise again. Expressing concern about the rising incidents, he said the business people are very much worried over the looting of imported materials including iron, steel and RMG goods.
He said, the government has formed highway police with the view to curbing robberies as well as regulating movement of vehicles on highways to prevent road accident. "However, despite all these measures robbery incidents are rampant on the Dhaka Chattogram Highway once again now which triggered concerns among the businesses," he observed.
Mr Alam also called upon the lawenforcers to take more appropriate measures immediately to arrest miscreants involved with the robberies and prevent looting of goods imported for the country's industries with hard-earned fereign currency. He expressed satisfaction at the steps to set up 1,460 cameras on the highway.
