Mahmudur Rahman

The rickshaw ride from Lalmatia to Aarong was bumpy. The side roads, as usual were deprived of the routine repair and maintenance essential for smooth movement of traffic and it was the cheerful rickshaw-puller Abul Kalam who decided on a slightly longer route to avoid the worst of such roads.

To make matters more complicated, there was a power outage in the area resulting in absence of street lights, murky or not. It was then that Kalam came up with a profound statement. "You know sir, I'm thinking of writing a letter to the Prime Minister making it compulsory for rickshaws to carry some form of identification lights, I can barely make out the vehicle ahead! After all we do pay Tk 100 as rent to the owner".

Musings of the profundity of the statement were rudely interrupted by evasive action required to avoid a motor-cycle being driven by a youth who was using the pavement to try and avoid the traffic jam. So there it was, a fairly uneducated person thinking of proper traffic rules and an educated youth violating the same with impunity. In between a bemused traffic policeman stood there trying to look as if he hadn't seen anything.

The two thought-provoking yet simple examples of governance are reminders to our new leadership that it's one thing to create rules and law, quite another to implement and enforce them. The challenge is not insignificant.

At a recent seminar, it was pointed out that Dhaka perhaps needed something like a moving pathway-similar to that of different airports, to break the grid-lock of traffic snarls. It's obvious that out of the box thinking is required. There simply are too many mechanised and non-mechanised transports on the roads in Dhaka. Add to this the occupation of footpaths by street vendors, the beginnings of meetings, processions and such on the roads and the movement of VIPs-and one has the inevitable result -- complete chaos.

Increasing the number of roads, particularly the East-West ones is only a means to the end. Other options must be considered. The footpath hawkers require an alternative as do the rickshaw-pullers. And the time really has come to consider rationalisation of the numbers of new mechanised vehicles that land on the road every month. Otherwise, the time and opportunity ticket, already expensive will turn out to be prohibitive and counter-productive.

The mindless commercialisation of Gulshan, Banani and Dhanmondi areas has contributed to the malady. Permission to construct multi-storied business and residential accommodation without consideration for the support infrastructure required has exacerbated the problem.

What's done probably can't be undone without inviting further complicacies. What can be done is -- plan for the future and bring a halt to the unplanned expansion of the concrete jungle.

In between some sensible solutions need to be found to the issue of parking. As matters stand there is no parking along Gulshan Avenue (where then does one park?) even in front of medicine shops. Vehicles must now head for the side alleys and contribute to jams in the narrow bye-lanes. There is no parking on the stretch between Pantho Path crossing to Dhanmondi Rd 8 and this time the side-alleys are not as many so as to be available. And of course, the 'friendly-neighbourhood' posse of City Corporation receipt-waving characters are always around to charge one for parking even in front of food establishments whereas the harried vehicular passengers have no prior information or warning. And of course let's not even mention the school-time jams in Dhanmondi and the one-way traffic systems that somehow does not make sense.

If it sounds like a mess -- it is. Does it warrant action -- it does. (The writer is a former Head of Corporate & Regulatory Affairs, British American Tobacco-Bangladesh & former CEO of Bangladesh Cricket Board and specialises in corporate affairs, communications and corporate social responsibility)