Khalilur Rahman A front-page photograph appeared in this newspaper last week showed how rickshaws and rickshaw-vans are plying the main road in front of the Bangladesh Secretariat at ease. Despite the ban now in force on plying non-motorized transports imposed by the Dhaka Metropolitan Police (DMP), the law is obeyed more in violation than compliance. Most of the VIP roads in the city are at present dominated by rickshaws, push-carts and rickshaw-vans. In addition to this, a fresh problem, arising out of plying swarms of battery-run rickshaws, has increased the risk of road accidents manifold. Battery-run rickshaws are now plying many city streets violating government ban on their movement as the police on duty allow them to do this in exchange of money. A battery-run rickshaw is more likely to bear greater risk of accidents because of its design and inadequate speed control system. According to Dhaka City Corporation (DCC) bodies, the DMP imposed a ban on plying this type of rickshaws more than two years ago because these are risky and may cause accident any time. This may be mentioned that on October 07 last a battery-operated rickshaw puller was killed in city's Kachukhet area when the rickshaw collided head-on with a human hauler. According to a dependable estimate, about 300000 manually-propelled and battery-run rickshaws ply the streets in Dhaka city. Of these, 20% are battery-run rickshaws. The battery-run rickshaws also consume a large volume of electricity every day. The ban on movement of non-motorized transports in city's main thoroughfares aims at reducing traffic congestion. But the way the rule is being violated by all types of vehicles, the traffic congestions continue to mount with each passing day. The DMP also prohibited the plying of motorcycles on footpaths last year in order to ensure public safety. But the ban, as we reported earlier in this column, has failed to dampen the high spirit of most of the young and reckless daredevil motorcyclists who frequently go through footpaths to avoid tailbacks in roads, thus, endangering safety of the pedestrians. These young people are those bunches of bikers who care less for the safety of others as well as themselves. Moreover, a rider without helmet often carries two persons on his back in utter violation of the DMP rule. It is not also rare that a person on the back is a woman, sometimes found with one or two of her children. As per DMP rule, a rider can carry one person in his motorcycle but the accompanying man or woman must also wear helmet. But the rule is never followed. The traffic authority had also arranged sale of helmets to the bikers at different points of the city. The traffic personnel with stock of helmets kept watch on the passing motorcycles and halted the bare-headed riders and pursued them to buy a helmet. But how many helmets were sold in a day could not be known. If a motorcycle rider was unable to pay for a helmet on the spot for want of money, he could go away for the time being. Actually the authority could ensure wearing of helmets if it was made mandatory for the sellers not to sell motorcycles without helmets. Now come the question of speed control of the motorcycles. No rule seems to be applied here by a traffic man. The way a motorcycle, invariably at top speed, sneaks through the speeding vehicles and proceeds like a hurricane sends shivers down the spine of a spectator. The exact number of motorcycles plying in city areas is not known. An unofficial estimate, however, puts the figure at 0.2 million. Now turning to the city's overall traffic management, the people are accustomed to hear about application of newer methods to resolve gridlock which is not only taking heavy toll on citizens' free movement, but also causing colossal loss in terms of working hours and hampering all other commercial activities. The number one problem relating to traffic jam, however, lies in plying of vehicles nearly five times higher than the capacity of roads in the metropolis. According to a dependable estimate, the city roads are capable to bear the pressure of 0.15 million automobiles. The Bangladesh Road Transport Authority (BRTA) has issued licences to about 0.75 million automobiles. In addition, nearly 0.2 million vehicles from outside ply city roads every day. This is another reason for traffic mess. (email: khalilbdh@gmail.com)
Rickshaws back on VIP roads
FE Team | Published: October 13, 2013 00:00:00 | Updated: February 01, 2018 00:00:00
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