Three decades later, Bangladesh is facing another crisis over the governance of urban transport: whether battery-powered autorickshaws should be banned or regulated. While rickshaws have acquired motors, the political economy Firoz Ahmed observed 30 years ago has survived in a different form.
The government estimates that between 50 lakh and 80 lakh battery-run autorickshaws and electric three-wheelers operate across Bangladesh. The Bangladesh Road Transport Authority’s estimate is above 60 lakh, including 10–12 lakh in Dhaka.
The government plans to regulate the sector through a colour-coded zoning system dividing Dhaka into eight distinct regions. The proposed system would mandate digital tracking and QR codes to prevent cloned registrations, while authorities would also crack down on unauthorised manufacturers and the 48,000 illegal charging stations that, according to a recent statement by Home Minister Salahuddin Ahmed, cost the state roughly Tk4,000 crore in annual revenue.
Battery-run autorickshaws have been strictly banned from major national highways to reduce accidents. However, city streets remain filled with them, and a massive crackdown still appears unlikely given the livelihoods of millions of drivers that depend on the vehicles.
The previous Awami League government attempted to regulate battery-run autorickshaws in May 2024. On 15 May, then road transport and bridges minister Obaidul Quader ordered authorities to stop battery-run rickshaws from operating in Dhaka.
Drivers responded by blocking roads. On 19 May, protests paralysed parts of Mirpur. Demonstrators vandalised at least four buses and set fire to a police box at Kalshi. Police used batons and tear gas, and clashes left at least 20 people injured.
The ban lasted only a few days. On 20 May, Quader announced that then prime minister Sheikh Hasina had allowed the vehicles to continue operating in Dhaka, citing the suffering of low-income drivers. Restrictions on highways remained.
The cycle repeated after the July Uprising.
On 19 November 2024, the High Court ordered authorities to stop battery-run rickshaws from operating in Dhaka within three days. Drivers again blocked roads and railway tracks. On 25 November, following an appeal by the government, the Appellate Division imposed a one-month status quo on the order. The vehicles returned.
“Regulation has stayed on paper because each one reached for a ban and mistook eviction for regulation. You cannot ban a vehicle that has already become an industry,” said Mohammad Subail bin Alam, director at the executive committee of the Bangladesh Sustainable and Renewable Energy Association (BSREA).
The rapid expansion of battery-run autorickshaws also reflects a failure to provide adequate last-mile transport. Buses do not enter narrow residential streets. Metro stations do not carry passengers to their homes. CNG-run autorickshaws are often too expensive for routine short journeys, while paddle-run rickshaws are too slow for the city.
Walking is also difficult in Dhaka’s congested areas, particularly through the footpaths of New Market, Gulistan, Mirpur-10 and Farmgate before 11am or after 5pm.
Battery-powered rickshaws have therefore filled a genuine transport vacuum by providing cheap rides close to passengers’ doorsteps. Politically connected garage-owners later saw the opportunity and flooded the streets.
“There is a social demand for transport, and who is responsible for meeting that demand? The government and the city corporations,” Firoz Ahmed said. “When they fail to provide formal transport options, informal forms of transport inevitably emerge.”
This is why law enforcement, calls to “Ban autorickshaws” or Sohani Shifa’s stunts confronting drivers like an angry Indian-film heroine cannot eliminate the vehicles.
“If the government does not provide adequate transport for short-distance and last-mile journeys, people will find another way,” Firoz Ahmed said. “You cannot simply stop this through enforcement. The first task is to provide alternatives.”
Thailand offers a useful comparison, he added. Bangkok had far more rickshaws 10 or 15 years ago, but their numbers fell as other transport options improved. Informal transport was gradually pushed towards the margins.
The autorickshaw economy now extends across component importers, assembly workshops, mechanics, vehicle owners, fleet operators, garages, charging businesses, drivers, local leaders and protection networks.
Yet regulatory proposals generally begin at the end of this chain, with the driver. Because the vehicles generally have no BRTA registration, identification number or reliable ownership record, police cannot issue conventional traffic fines.
Authorities can seize the vehicles, but they do not have enough dumping space for a fleet numbering in the millions. A driver removed today can be replaced tomorrow.
Even licensing authority remains contested. BRTA has said responsibility has not been formally assigned to it, while city corporations claim jurisdiction over rickshaw licensing. The Road Transport and Highways Division drafted an Electric Three-Wheeler Management Policy in 2025, while the Local Government Division later developed separate guidelines amid reported BRTA objections.
“The fragmentation is almost designed to preserve disorder. The failure so far has not been technical but political — a matter of bureaucratic tangle and vested interest,” Subail bin Alam said.
The road-safety consequences have also become significant. Passengers and other road users regularly face hazards including abrupt turns, wrong-way driving, excessive speed, weak lighting and brakes that fail under load.
Many pedal rickshaws were fitted with motors without redesigning their frames, braking systems or centres of gravity.
According to the Bangladesh Jatri Kalyan Samiti, Bangladesh recorded 6,729 road crashes in 2025, causing 9,111 deaths and 14,812 injuries. Battery-run autorickshaws were involved in 13.54% of those crashes.
Buet engineers have already developed a standardised model featuring hydraulic and parking brakes, indicators, mirrors, automatic half-doors, a reinforced driver compartment and a vehicle identification number. The recommended speed is 27–30km/h, with a braking distance below 10 metres.
The engineering problem, therefore, is solvable. The larger challenge lies in governance.
The transport disorder also conceals a second economy centred on electricity theft and informal charging.
Home Minister Salahuddin Ahmed told parliament that the country has only around 3,300 legal charging points, while Dhaka alone contains more than 48,000 informal or illegal ones. He estimated that illegal charging deprives the government of about Tk4,000 crore in annual revenue.
The fleet may consume 5% or more of Bangladesh’s electricity generation. Charging several vehicles simultaneously from residential connections can overload transformers and distribution lines, while commercial operators pay subsidised household rates or bypass meters altogether.
Shafiqul Alam, lead energy analyst for Bangladesh at the Institute for Energy Economics and Financial Analysis, said, “The pressure can be managed if charging facilities are adequate and users pay properly for their electricity. Solar power could meet part of the additional demand where sufficient capacity is installed.”
Electricity is only one part of the environmental cost. Most vehicles use relatively cheap lead-acid batteries with short lifespans. Informal dismantling and recycling expose workers, who are sometimes children, and surrounding communities to lead contamination. The World Health Organization says there is no safe level of exposure to lead.
“The government also needs to ensure that the batteries and charging systems being used meet appropriate quality and safety standards,” Shafiqul said. “A proper licensing mechanism could provide one way of bringing it under control.”
“Any policy that registers drivers but leaves garages, charging operators and battery recyclers untouched will formalise the visible vehicle while protecting the invisible money,” he added.
The persistence of the disorder is also linked to the economic interests built around informality. Owners avoid taxes and compliance costs. Garages profit from unmetered or underpriced electricity. Local intermediaries collect payments for access, routes and protection.
An autorickshaw garage that used to house 10–15 rickshaws immediately after the July Uprising now houses about a hundred.
“There is also an institutional interest in maintaining informality,” Shafiqul Alam said. “Whenever a large informal sector develops, it creates opportunities for informal businesses and networks to extract money in exchange for protection or access.”
“There is a problem with maintaining disorder is that it creates discretionary power,” Firoz Ahmed said, “When traffic is controlled manually rather than through functioning signals and predictable rules, enforcement officers have greater control over who moves and who does not.”
Firoz argues that citizens, traffic engineers and transport specialists must participate in designing and reviewing traffic rules rather than leaving crucial operational decisions almost entirely to police.
“The more effectively you formalise an informal sector, the less space there is for these informal networks,” he said.
Shafiqul warned that without transparent structures and oversight, the sector will remain vulnerable to political patronage, particularly given the amount of money involved.
The government now faces a choice between establishing proper governance for millions of vehicles, garages and workers or repeating the pattern of banning the vehicles, triggering protests and retreating from enforcement. The unresolved crisis shows that treating an industry of millions of vehicles as illegal does not remove the need to govern it.
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