News
1000 cc ‘big bikes’ on public roads despite police warning
High-powered motorcycles with engine capacity as high as 1000 cc will soon be allowed on roads under normal laws despite a warning by the Police Traffic Chief that there could be more road deaths and criminal activity.
A senior Transport Ministry official said a gazette notification would be issued soon for such motorcycles to run on public roads.
Earlier the Government issued a special gazette notification to enable owners of motorcycles with engine capacity up to as much as 1000cc to keep their bikes for what is termed “sports purposes.” Under earlier laws, riding these motorcycles on the roads was prohibited.
Under a gazette notification hurriedly issued last month registration of high capacity motorcycles imported or modified only before April 11 was permitted. The Government is now expected to give an extended period for the import of high capacity bikes though the period is not known.
Police Traffic Chief Amarasiri Senaratne said the move to allow high capacity motorcycles on roads could add to the number of road accidents as already one or two people were killed daily due to motorcycle accidents.
He said allowing high-powered motorcycles would also cause problems for police in conducting their patrolling duties as police had motorcycles with much less capacity. The Police Traffic Chief said that in foreign countries criminal gangs were known to operate on such high-powered motorcycles and if similar gangs here owned high-capacity motorcycles, there could be all sorts of problems.
He said the police now had only two 1000 cc motorcycles and they were used only on the Southern Expressway. Meanwhile, about 10 motorcycles with a capacity of 1000 cc have been registered with the Motor Traffic Department while more such motorcycles are to be due to be registered.
Follow @timesonlinelk
comments powered by Disqus