The Bangladesh Road Transport Authority (BRTA) has started giving registration certificate to the app-based ride-sharing services in the country.
The BRTA authority has launched online-based registration process in providing registration to the companies, an official of BRTA told the FE.
Piickme Ltd, a local transportation network company, has received the first registration certificate to operate their service for one year, after which the registration would have to be renewed.
BRTA Director (engineering) Lokman Hossain Mollah told the FE on Wednesday that some five to seven companies are in the registration pipeline.
"We hope that rest companies would get the registration certificate accordingly," he said.
The BRTA director also described the registration process as a breakthrough for the ride-sharing companies in the country.
Earlier, the manual registration process of 16 ride-sharing companies in the country got stuck in BRTA due to some technical issues and complexities in the registration policy, sources at BRTA said.
All of the ride-sharing companies, including those that submitted application earlier, will have to submit application again through online.
Senior Manager (business operations) of Piickme Shariful Islam Tareq said it is necessary to launch an e-training institute for the riders in a combine effort with the government to enhance the skills of riders.
"The e-training institute could strength the sector and contribute in providing skilled manpower," he added.
The app-based ride-sharing services started their journey in Bangladesh in 2015.
Later, the government approved the ‘Ride-sharing Service Guideline 2017’ and it came into force from March 8 of 2018.
