Delinquent transport owners and drivers are now in a hurry to procure legal documents for their vehicles and themselves respectively as an immediate impact of the ongoing students' movement over ensuring road safety.
A large number of owners and drivers having no license and fitness certificates were seen thronging the Bangladesh Road Transport Authority (BRTA) offices from the early morning on Sunday to obtain valid documents.
The sudden pressure of growing number of service recipients on the first office day of the week put the BRTA officials in a difficult position to maintain service delivery.
The FE correspondent found it during a visit to the office of the road and transportation regulator at Mirpur in the capital.
To avert long queues, many of them were seen communicating with a vested group for getting faster services, while a few others were approaching through the back side of the office.
Mohammad Biplob, a driver of 'Suprovat' company - operating passenger buses from Gazipur to Sadarghat in the capital, said he came to the BRTA office to renew his driving license that got expired more than a year ago.
He said the strict stance of the police officials to enforce traffic rules following the students' protest forced him to come for the license renewal.
Mohammad Nasir, a private car driver, said a group of protesters stopped the car while he was driving at College Gate area in Mohammadpur a couple of days ago, and forced him to stand beside the road for an hour.
"It was very insulting. That's why I came to the BRTA office at 9:00 am to get valid documents. Now, it's 2:00 pm, but I'm still in the middle of the queue…. more people are coming in as the day is progressing," he added.
Ekbal Hossain, who stood in a separate line, said he had been in the long queue for availing fitness certificate of a bus that runs from Savar to Mirpur.
"My bus owner asked me to deposit the fee on behalf of the vehicle, which was halted by the protesters at Mirpur-2 on August 01," he further said.
Abdul Haque, the driver of a CNG-run three-wheeler, said his license got expired five years ago. But, he did not renew it because of the lengthy and complicated procedure that normally eats up valuable time.
But the recent developments regarding establishing discipline in the transport system forced him to get a valid document.
"I somehow managed by convincing some people," he said with a mysterious smile while responding to a question on how he has been driving vehicles without a license for so many years.
Talking to the FE, Abu Taher, office assistant of BRTA's fitness certificate wing, said their workload has more than doubled, as a large number of people have started pouring in for getting license and fitness certificate.
"Even, we don't have enough time now for having lunch," he noted.
When contacted, BRTA assistant director Ali Ahsan Milon admitted the growing pressure of service delivery, and said the number of applications has been increasing.
BRTA sources said at present the agency is daily receiving around 250 applications for getting driving license, over 120 for license renewal, and around 1,600 applications for fitness certificate on an average.
Before the students' protest, the numbers were 100, 50 and 900 respectively.
Meanwhile, in the wake of the tough movement over road safety, Dhaka Metropolitan Police (DMP) has started observing traffic week from Sunday for bringing discipline in the transport system.
On the first day of the weeklong traffic initiative, an increased number of traffic officials were found at each intersection across the city for penalising the drivers without valid documents.
A traffic sergeant at Diabari intersection said the students have showed the law-enforcers how they should act.
"We'll not allow anyone on the streets without proper documents. This is our clear message and we'll do that," he added.
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