Challenging task to tackle traffic snarls
Thursday, 17 September 2009
Shahiduzzaman Khan
Of late, the government has deployed the armed forces to control the city's ever-increasing traffic jams. The situation has turned so critical that the members of the armed forces were seen helpless in tackling the chaotic traffic this week. There was no visible improvement in traffic gridlock situation as traffic police and sergeants, besides military police, were also seen incapable of handling an enormous number of vehicles on the streets.
Indeed, the government's recent drive for eliminating old cars from the streets has fallen flat. Dhaka Metropolitan Police (DMP) claimed that all vacant places owned by the police have been flooded with seized old vehicles. There are no further places for dumping them. Can this be yet an excuse for stopping the special drives? Such a drive was scheduled to continue round the clock until the end of Ramadan. But no drive is being conducted now in the metropolitan area. Mobile courts headed by magistrates are no more seen in operation on the city streets. In fact, there was no such announcement from the DMP about suspension of the drive. Where did they really go?
According to the observers, the city sees more vehicles pressed into service than the number withdrawn from streets. More than 133 new vehicles are coming onto the city streets each day against 100 vehicles seized on an average. Ahead of the Eid-ul Fitr, the government has started seizing a good number of fit buses, tempos and mini-buses in the name of requisition. Reports say, drivers and owners of such vehicles are being harassed if they refuse to hand over their transports to the police for requisition.
Some observers have termed the traffic gridlock as number one problem of the city. Citizens are losing precious man-hours in the process. Sickening trauma of endless waiting is telling upon their mental and physical health. Due to bizarre traffic congestion, output is shrinking, absenteeism growing, incomes and opportunities are being lost. With limited land and road network, Dhaka city is now bracing for fresh air with ever-rising gridlocks.
Why is not the government taking a crash programme to address this number one problem of the city? An integrated plan for elevated expressways, flyovers, monorails, underground rails, underpass etc., can be taken up and approved on priority basis and implemented under a crash programme. Keeping other projects pending, this plan needs to be executed in no time. What the Chinese government did 30 to 40 years ago can be cited here. The Chinese government resolved their housing and bare-foot problems by taking up crash programmes. They kept other projects on hold to implement such priority projects. Today, the Chinese are not only self-sufficient in shoe making; but also exporting them in huge quantity. All Chinese people have been provided with the housing facilities after their government had gone for implementing a crash programme. Bangladesh government can adopt such a strategy, considering the urgency to remove city's nagging traffic congestion.
The communication minister appears to be seriously busy in preparing the Padma Bridge project design and its implementation. As a major stakeholder, he and his ministry people can devote some of their precious time to mitigating the city's communication problems too. The communications ministry executes construction of roads, bridges, flyovers, and expressways. Local Government Division of the Ministry of LGRD & Cooperatives and Ministry of Land are other stakeholders involved in implementation works relating to other development projects of the city. Lack of coordination among these ministries is seriously impeding various development plans of the city. Besides traffic snarls, the city suffers from water logging. A little rain clogs the roads creating serious traffic gridlocks. The authorities appear to remain indifferent to city's water logging issue as well.
As has been seen in major cities around the globe, Dhaka city had not been built under a long-term perspective plan. City roads in Europe and America were built keeping in minds 100 years' onward traffic management. Former British and Pakistani regimes did not give much attention to proper planning of the city. As such roads, lanes and by-lanes were made narrower and clumsier. Load management of the structures was seriously ignored, resulting in the life of the roads coming down alarmingly. Afterwards, when the city got new facelift after country's liberation, there was a lack of uniformity in city planning as well. Even the Strategic Transport Plan (STP), formulated recently, has many faults as was identified by the town planners and experts.
Transport experts say only seizure of vehicles cannot improve the city's traffic congestion. As the government has failed to introduce mass transport system in time, it needs to focus on efficient traffic management now to improve the situation. There should be maximum use of roads by recovering the spaces now being occupied for parking and displaying goods. Parking on the streets should be stopped to ensure smooth running of the vehicles. Same as recovery of footpaths is needed to pull up the pedestrians on it from the streets.
Indeed, loss on account of traffic jams runs into billions of takas or equivalents from delayed transportation of goods and uneconomical functioning of vehicles. As for very personal losses, patients were known to have died from the inability of ambulances to reach hospitals on time due to traffic jams. There are many more losses that still remain unaccounted for. The government and the people must find a way out of this public nuisance.
szkhan@thefinacialexpress-bd.com
Of late, the government has deployed the armed forces to control the city's ever-increasing traffic jams. The situation has turned so critical that the members of the armed forces were seen helpless in tackling the chaotic traffic this week. There was no visible improvement in traffic gridlock situation as traffic police and sergeants, besides military police, were also seen incapable of handling an enormous number of vehicles on the streets.
Indeed, the government's recent drive for eliminating old cars from the streets has fallen flat. Dhaka Metropolitan Police (DMP) claimed that all vacant places owned by the police have been flooded with seized old vehicles. There are no further places for dumping them. Can this be yet an excuse for stopping the special drives? Such a drive was scheduled to continue round the clock until the end of Ramadan. But no drive is being conducted now in the metropolitan area. Mobile courts headed by magistrates are no more seen in operation on the city streets. In fact, there was no such announcement from the DMP about suspension of the drive. Where did they really go?
According to the observers, the city sees more vehicles pressed into service than the number withdrawn from streets. More than 133 new vehicles are coming onto the city streets each day against 100 vehicles seized on an average. Ahead of the Eid-ul Fitr, the government has started seizing a good number of fit buses, tempos and mini-buses in the name of requisition. Reports say, drivers and owners of such vehicles are being harassed if they refuse to hand over their transports to the police for requisition.
Some observers have termed the traffic gridlock as number one problem of the city. Citizens are losing precious man-hours in the process. Sickening trauma of endless waiting is telling upon their mental and physical health. Due to bizarre traffic congestion, output is shrinking, absenteeism growing, incomes and opportunities are being lost. With limited land and road network, Dhaka city is now bracing for fresh air with ever-rising gridlocks.
Why is not the government taking a crash programme to address this number one problem of the city? An integrated plan for elevated expressways, flyovers, monorails, underground rails, underpass etc., can be taken up and approved on priority basis and implemented under a crash programme. Keeping other projects pending, this plan needs to be executed in no time. What the Chinese government did 30 to 40 years ago can be cited here. The Chinese government resolved their housing and bare-foot problems by taking up crash programmes. They kept other projects on hold to implement such priority projects. Today, the Chinese are not only self-sufficient in shoe making; but also exporting them in huge quantity. All Chinese people have been provided with the housing facilities after their government had gone for implementing a crash programme. Bangladesh government can adopt such a strategy, considering the urgency to remove city's nagging traffic congestion.
The communication minister appears to be seriously busy in preparing the Padma Bridge project design and its implementation. As a major stakeholder, he and his ministry people can devote some of their precious time to mitigating the city's communication problems too. The communications ministry executes construction of roads, bridges, flyovers, and expressways. Local Government Division of the Ministry of LGRD & Cooperatives and Ministry of Land are other stakeholders involved in implementation works relating to other development projects of the city. Lack of coordination among these ministries is seriously impeding various development plans of the city. Besides traffic snarls, the city suffers from water logging. A little rain clogs the roads creating serious traffic gridlocks. The authorities appear to remain indifferent to city's water logging issue as well.
As has been seen in major cities around the globe, Dhaka city had not been built under a long-term perspective plan. City roads in Europe and America were built keeping in minds 100 years' onward traffic management. Former British and Pakistani regimes did not give much attention to proper planning of the city. As such roads, lanes and by-lanes were made narrower and clumsier. Load management of the structures was seriously ignored, resulting in the life of the roads coming down alarmingly. Afterwards, when the city got new facelift after country's liberation, there was a lack of uniformity in city planning as well. Even the Strategic Transport Plan (STP), formulated recently, has many faults as was identified by the town planners and experts.
Transport experts say only seizure of vehicles cannot improve the city's traffic congestion. As the government has failed to introduce mass transport system in time, it needs to focus on efficient traffic management now to improve the situation. There should be maximum use of roads by recovering the spaces now being occupied for parking and displaying goods. Parking on the streets should be stopped to ensure smooth running of the vehicles. Same as recovery of footpaths is needed to pull up the pedestrians on it from the streets.
Indeed, loss on account of traffic jams runs into billions of takas or equivalents from delayed transportation of goods and uneconomical functioning of vehicles. As for very personal losses, patients were known to have died from the inability of ambulances to reach hospitals on time due to traffic jams. There are many more losses that still remain unaccounted for. The government and the people must find a way out of this public nuisance.
szkhan@thefinacialexpress-bd.com