An ICU patient and a probing quack

Mayor of Dhaka North City Corporation (DNCC) Mr. Annisul Huq likened Dhaka to an 'ICU patient' and himself to a doctor sans medical knowledge while discussing Dhaka's unfixable problem of traffic congestion at a function last Sunday.
The comparison would lead one to conclude that the DNCC mayor has decided to resign himself to a far more terrible situation as far as Dhaka's traffic is concerned and also to being criticised.
But the statement that followed his words of comparison shows that he was yet to consider himself as a loser in the fight against Dhaka's traffic anarchy.
Annisul said, "We need to keep the patient (meaning Dhaka city) alive. We cannot keep on researching (to find answers to traffic problems) while the patient is dying. We must do something to this effect".
Mayor of Dhaka South City Corporation (DSCC) Syed Khokan, who also attended the function, wanted immediate action-oriented measures to improve the city's traffic situation, which, according to him, is bound to deteriorate further shortly.
Mr. Obaidul Quader, as usual, raised a battle cry and asked the mayors to move ahead boldly with plans to free the city from nagging traffic jam. He also promised his full support to the mayors.   
But the way things have developed over the years, even persons considered depositories of traffic management knowledge would find themselves in deep water if asked to devise solutions to problems of Dhaka city traffic.
The DNCC in association with the Institute of Architects, the Institution of Engineers and Bangladesh Institute of Planners organised the discussion in Dhaka. Road Transport and Bridges Minister Obaidul Quader attended the function as the chief guest.
Commuters too have given up their hope about any possible remedy to the ever-deteriorating traffic problem of Dhaka city. A jam-free road or free movement of vehicles is a rare event these days. The commuters would have a rare opportunity to move freely on the streets of Dhaka during a couple of days following the coming Eid-ul-Azha celebration. That would also be newspaper headlines.
Someone coming from Mohammadpur or Mirpur or Uttara to the business district of Motijheel or the Bangladesh Secretariat to attend a few businesses can hardly complete more than a piece of work throughout the day. During 10-hour stay outside the residence a day, he or she is required to spend at least six hours on the road because of severe traffic jam. Commuters are often heard cursing their fate for being a resident of a metropolis that is the second worst in the world.
Experts have been citing scores of reasons, including faulty road network, poor traffic management, occupation of footpath by vendors and plying of rickshaws, for the deteriorating traffic situation in Dhaka. But there is no respite from the traffic gridlocks. Rather the problem has aggravated in the absence of any measures directed towards improving the situation.
The traffic situation, undoubtedly, would deteriorate beyond one's imagination when construction work of the metro rail will be in full gear soon.    
Factors such as graft, greed and muscle power are in action to make the traffic situation worse. While registration of new cars and permission to open new bus routes are being given unabatedly, many unregistered passenger vehicles not worthy of roads are crowding the streets of Dhaka city. Drivers of passenger buses are giving a damn to traffic rules and have turned the entire city streets into bus stoppages. They drop and pick passengers wherever they like.
Annisul is right while saying that no research work would help overcome the sufferings from traffic jam. It is hard to make the road system scientific for the roads were built long ago and those cannot be widened or straightened or bent to the liking of someone now. Nor can the authorities ask the registered and road-worthy vehicles to keep off the roads.
But as a short-term remedy, they, at least, can ask all the unfit and unregistered vehicles to go off the roads, punish severely whoever tries to defy the order and introduce air-conditioned bus services for the middle class at an affordable cost.  
Some days back, the Bangladesh Road Transport Authority (BRTA) had launched a drive against unfit buses. After a week, the drive was unceremoniously called off, as usual. Everybody knew the final outcome -- a big zero, of the drive.
So, any drive against unfit and unregistered vehicles is unlikely because of the opposition from the transport owners and workers. Political connections do have a bearing on everything in this country. The transport sector is no exception. The same owners and workers would also oppose the introduction of luxury buses on city routes. They must have plausible reasons to do that. But none has ever bothered to know that. Things on the traffic front, in all likelihood, will continue to drag on, in the way it is now.
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