But in a matter of days your appreciation begins to wear thin as you get caught up in the innumerable traffic jams primarily caused by the wayward rickshaw wallahs.

Rickshaws regularly compete with other modes of faster-moving transport for the narrow spaces in Dhaka's streets. It is said the rickshaw wallahs rule the road.

In their struggle for road supremacy they often quarrel with others, resulting in frequent fist fights. The intensity of such road rage has touched off a fierce debate about what to do with rickshaws.

Critics say they should be banned altogether because they are constitute a major bottleneck in improving the city's transport network.

The critics also say the rickshaw should be banned from the human point of view. They contend that it is really heartbreaking to see the rickshaw wallahs toiling under the baking sun or in a heavy downpour.

The charitable view is that rickshaws are still the easiest form of transport in a city which lacks cheap and convenient transport for its eight million inhabitants - as rickshaws can go anywhere, especially in the narrow lanes and byways.

The proponents also point to another crucial fact - the business provides employment for a huge number of people in a country that suffers from chronic unemployment.

According to one estimate, rickshaws provide employment to about half a million people in Dhaka.

'I don't think rickshaws can be removed from the city totally,' said an official from the Dhaka City Corporation, which is responsible for registering rickshaws, adding: 'It's also not necessary.' All that was required was to control the number of illegal rickshaws. 'If we can do that Dhaka can be a much more tolerable city,' he said.

There are no official estimates of the number of rickshaws now plying the streets. Although the corporation has licensed 79,000 of them, conservative estimates put the number of illegal rickshaws at about 240,000.

Several steps have in the past been taken to control the movement of illegal rickshaws, but none has worked.

From next month, the city official hopes, things will substantially improve with the introduction of new number plates and tax tokens which will be virtually impossible to copy.

'I'm sure we'll be able to quickly identify illegal rickshaws,' he said.

Rickshaw wallah Mohammad Shahin agrees it will be difficult for illegal operators to ply their trade with impunity when the city officials and traffic police launch their combined crackdown.

'Who wants to do this nerve-racking job day after day?' he asks, years of hard labour etched into his weatherbeaten face.

The father-of-two professes himself to be quite happy with an income of 100 taka a day (about HK$19) in a country where average annual earnings are only HK$1,780, but says he is ready to give up rickshaw driving provided the Government arranges some alternative for him.