Auto-rickshaws can collect gas from CNG filling stations alongside highways for two hours in the morning every day, said Road Transport and Bridges minister Obaidul Quader has said.

The three-wheelers can be refuelled from the CNG filling stations located by highways from 6:00am to 8:00am every day, he said while talking to reporters after visiting the ongoing Dhaka-Chittagong four-lane work in Chouddagram upazila on Thursday afternoon, reports news agency UNB.

The minister, however, said there must not be any passenger in any auto-rickshaw while going for gas refilling. “This will be applicable on 35,000km of highways across the country.”

Dhaka-Chittagong four-lane project director Ibn Alam Hasan, additional chief engineer of the Roads and Highways Department of Comilla Junayed Ahsan Shibib and Comilla RHD executive engineer M Saif Uddin were, among others, present.

On 27 July, the government slapped a ban on the movement of light vehicles like three-wheelers and non-motorised ones on highways across the country with effect from 1 August to reduce road accidents.

The ban came in the wake of deaths of over 240 people in a series of road accidents before and after Eid-ul-Fitr across the country.

Following the ban, auto-rickshaw drivers and owners launched demonstrations in different parts of the country from 1 August protesting the ban.