The capital city dazzled with sparkling lights, cleaner roads and colourful hoardings during the T20 World Cup Cricket. The roads, road islands and important intersections were magnificently decorated. It is learnt that the government spent Tk 1.15 billion to give the capital a facelift ahead of the cricket extravaganza. Police were seen in action not for security reasons only. They were seen busy inspecting transports, checking their fitness and related papers.
 The dented and worn-out transports not only look ugly themselves, they harm the beauty of the city. Similarly, transports releasing black smokes are injurious to public health and environment. Moreover, public transports with dilapidated and decrepit condition are vulnerable to accidents. Such types of vehicles are not supposed to get fitness certificate as per criteria of the BRTA (Bangladesh Road Transport Authority).
Prior to the T20 World Cup Cricket, authorities seemed to be tough on these faulty vehicles. BRTA issued public notification to owners of buses and mini-buses plying in the city and suburban areas, advising them to undertake proper repair and maintenance of such vehicles. They also raised warnings that tougher actions would be taken against those who fail to comply with the directives. Accordingly, police checked vehicles and took immediate actions. Things thus looked much well managed during the T20 Cricket. Alongside an illuminated and clean environment, the city dwellers watched a better traffic management.
 Now that T20 is over, the city traffic is back to where it was. The defective, old and ugly vehicles are back on the streets. As usual, they are haphazardly making their movements before the eyes of the law enforcing agencies. Doesn't this indicate that the authorities are more attentive to the foreigners and have no obligation to the tax-paying city-dwellers?
The city of Dhaka has the ill reputation of becoming the worst liveable city in the world. One of the reasons is the poor and messy traffic situation. Successful holding of the T20 World Cup Cricket has made us believe that by addressing mismanagement we can bring a good deal of improvement on the traffic situation. If it was possible then, why not now? Is it because some sections of the law enforcing agencies prefer chaos to discipline, as commonly alleged, so that they can reap benefit from it,?
saleque1951@gmail.com
Traffic management - if we could do then, why not now?
Shaikh Saleque | Published: April 24, 2014 00:00:00 | Updated: November 30, 2024 06:01:00
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