Home-grown solutions key to addressing city traffic problems

Transport expert Professor M Shamsul Hoque has strongly recommended reducing dependence on foreign consultants and underscored the need for finding home-grown solutions to the city traffic problems.
Dr Hoque, a professor of civil engineering department at Bangladesh University of Engineering and Technology (BUET), said international practices and updated knowledge are necessary to find the best solution to a problem.
However, there is a need for home-grown solutions that must come through innovative thinking from officials and engineers of the government's planning section, he stressed.
While presenting a paper on 'Planning approaches for developing efficient and sustainable transportation system' at a workshop on Monday, Prof Hoque said most feasibility studies or plans and proposals are guided by the project officials, who hardly have knowledge and understanding of modern transport systems.
The Dhaka Transport Coordination Authority (DTCA) organised the workshop to disseminate the latest issues involving the transport sector to different government agencies. Road Transport and Highways Division Secretary ABM Amin Ullah Nuri was present at the workshop as the chief guest, with DTCA Executive Director Sabiha Parveen in the chair.
Prof Hoque, having a vast experience of working with more or less 70 development projects in the communication sector, said city flyovers, footbridges, footpaths, mass transit, etc., lack proper study and design.
Pointing out the irreversible damage these structures have caused to the city, Mr Hoque said a new capital has been necessary.
The government's vision for a 'Smart Bangladesh' cannot be built in this city due to its faulty road transport plans, Dr Hoque observed.
"Even Purbachal, which could have been a new city, has been built in irreversible ways," said the BUET professor, adding that the town's spine has been damaged by the wrong planning.
The 300-foot road there has to take the load of 97 per cent of the population on one side while only three per cent on the other, he explained.
Besides, the development of the signalling system cannot be solved by foreign consultants or software - there is the need for a system that can handle day-to-day monitoring and evaluation, he added.
Dr Hoque said footbridges were the idea of the 60s while building flyovers inside the city stopped in the 50s.
The consultants follow the instruction from the government agencies that lack proper knowledge in the modern transportation system, he added.
Referring to the problems in the road design, the BUET professor said fattening roads by increasing lanes from four to eight or 10 will also not solve the traffic chaos unless the crossing points are taken care of - crossing points have to be 30 times wider compared to the road.
But crossings in the city, even in the highways, cannot be made efficient due to a shortage of required space, which has already been occupied by constructing buildings.
"These (issues) are totally absent in the planning stage due to a lack of knowledge by the project offices and the planning section," he said, adding that proper planning and knowledge can help design a new city in a better way as well as rebuild the existing one.

smunima@yahoo.com