The city arteries and gridlock

The capital Dhaka got a good mileage out of roads, flyovers and an overpass during the last one year. Due to the efforts taken in the last few years, the city dwellers now experience more than 25 kilometres of roads added to the city's road network by the flyovers, overpasses, etc. This add-on infrastructure has proved many of our predictions wrong that no new road could be constructed in this congested and unplanned city.
But what is still unknown is the percentage of change in the city road network after the construction of new roads. But the most important question is how much comfort has returned to the lives of commuters after completion of the infrastructure. Do the people find any difference now? Do they get some sort of comfort from the chronic pain they used to bear every day being stranded for several hours in and around these areas.
It has so far been assessed that the Dhaka city has eight per cent roads against the average requirement of 25 per cent.
So, the development work so far done is far less than requirement. We also do not know whether the driving speed of transports increased or not. What is the benefit of the infrastructure, for which at least Tk 50 billion was spent.
The city dwellers have been using the 804-metre-long Banani overpass since it was opened to traffic in December last. Hundreds of people are now benefiting from the over 17km of roads and bridge roads along the Hatirjheel and Begunbari Water Retention Project. The 1.7km Mirpur-Airport flyover with a 560-metre link bridge and the 3km Kuril Flyover were also added to the list from March and July respectively. Very recently, after opening of the Mayor Mohammad Hanif flyover, a hope was created among highway commuters that it would cut at least by a half the time it took at the Sayedabad-Jatrabari point.
The reality is that in most of the cases, the new bypass, flyovers, bridges and roads could not bring the desired benefit for the people due to a lack of long-term visions of the planners. After completion of these structures, the city has got a new look and people are also enjoying big overhead structures and the scenic beauty on their ways to different destinations within the city. But the city remains as busy as before. In some cases, the gridlock worsened and sufferings of people multiplied.
Experts warned traffic congestion in some areas like Kuril, Banani, Niketan, Rampura, Badda, Mohakhali etc., would be diversified with construction of the new infrastructure. Due to lack of an east-west connection road in the city, the traffic pressure always remains on the north-south connection roads. Except the Hatirjheel project roads, none of the infrastructure is an east-west solution. An east-west connection road will see diversion of traffic from the prime road as they take any turning easily avoiding travelling a long way.
The observers feel that traffic jams at local levels eased after construction of Banani overpass, Mirpur-airport flyover, Kuril flyover and the Mayor Hanif flyover. But experiences show that new pockets of traffic congestion have been created at nearby locations of the bridges and roads. People remain stranded regularly at all the exit and entry points of the 300-acre Hatirjheel project area, at signal points of Banani graveyard and Kemal Ataturk Avenue and Kalshi of Mirpur. Besides, trails of transports are also found at the Banani rail-crossing and Kuril points waiting for long to take a right turning in front of Radisson Hotel.
The road along the Hatirjheel project was designed to establish a link road between the eastern and western parts. In absence of the Y or U loops at the exit and entry points, for example at Rampura, the commuters have to wait for quite a long time to take right turnings. Due to not accommodating these options in the Tk 19.71 billion Hatirjheel project design, the commuters remain stranded at Madhya Badda, Niketan and Moghbazar to take turnings towards Mauchak, Gulshan, Ramna Thana and Sonargaon Road.
To date, the Kuril flyover is benefiting commuters travelling to the northern part of the city and coming back to the main city. BUET experts, however, apprehend that this enjoyment would not last long. They said after opening of the 300-foot Kuril-Purbachal road to traffic, the Airport Road and the Kuril flyover would ease the traffic to the city from the fast expanding eastern city zone.
Experts of Bangladesh University of Engineering and Technology (BUET) say Dhaka generates an additional volume of traffic before any short-cut solution is completed and it has already proved true. The highway traffic pressure on the city's main thoroughfares is unlikely to ease in few years due to inadequate efforts of authorities concerned to implement bypass or ring road projects. And the Hanif flyover is yet to provide any solution to the problems the highway users face. Though the entire 10-km flyover, constructed under a public-private-partnership project is opened, the existing structure is hardly being used by commuters due to high tolls.
According to traffic experts, it is impossible for city traffic to avoid Jatrabari or Gabtoli as entry and exit points in the absence of alternative gateways to the city.
At least 15 road projects are in the process of implementation by different agencies in and around Dhaka city, which may serve as bypass and ring roads in areas of Dhaka city. But most of these projects were launched a decade ago and none could say when the work would be completed. Most of these projects under Roads and Highways Department (RHD) and Rajdhani Unnayan Kartipakhya (Rajuk) saw little progress despite all the efforts made over the last decade due to problems like fund shortage, land acquisition, bureaucratic tangles etc. The projects include Dhaka bypass four-lane road, Tongi-Kaliganj-Ghorashal four-lane road, Gazipur-Ajmatpur-Itakhola road, Kuril-Purbachal-Kanchan bridge road, Badda thana-Berait-Gawsia road, Gabtoli-Sowarighat-Badamtoli four-lane road, Jatrabari-Katchpur eight-lane road, Shirnittek-Gabtoli bridge connection road, Demra-Amulia-Rampura road, Mirpur-Birulia-Ashulia road and 3rd Buriganga Bridge-Majina-Kayetpara-Trimohoni link road.
To ease traffic jams not only road and bridge construction but also an increased number of public transports should be given important. But the city continues to witness an increase in the number of small-passenger capacity transports instead of the much required high-capacity transports like those on MRT (mass rapid transit) and BRT (bus rapid transit) routes.
The city commuters could enjoy smooth transport service if the Bangladesh Road Transport Corporation (BRTC) could have ensured easy availability of their imported doubl-decker, single-decker and air-conditioned uses alongside the articulated ones. It appears that entire investment of the state-run corporation has gone down the drain. It is found that almost all the imported cheap CNG-run buses have turned unfit within two to three years.
The rest of the buses have been handed over to the private lease holders who are doing nothing but ruining the buses as well as the services. They do not adhere to any route plan and the chart of fares fixed.
The BRTC imported nearly 1,000 buses during the last few years including 275 Chinese buses, 275 Indian double-decker buses and 50 articulated buses.
Though one MRT and two BRT projects have been undertaken, the commuters will have to wait for quite a long time to get the benefit of those. Both MRT and BRT projects are now in the initial stage as only feasibility studies could be completed.
As experts fear, people's sufferings would not decline to the desired level as the government is yet to accelerate work on other related projects like construction of multi-modal hubs at the airport station. The MRT and BRT services are being planned to be launched only on a single route against three different routes recommended in the strategic transport plan. Due to lack of coordination and progress in implementation of all related projects simultaneously alongside new infrastructure, the commuters would be deprived of minimum benefits from those, the experts said.
The writer is Special Correspondent of the FE