Shahiduzzaman Khan

Severe traffic gridlock continues to cripple life and business in the capital city. Commuters endure a lot of pains and agonies in travelling from one place to the other due to traffic mayhem. Then there is the problem of passing through the railway level crossings. Accidents are taking place at these crossings. Citizens are hoping for a way out sooner than later.

Just a day after a speeding train rammed into a bus at Moghbazar level crossing last week leaving some people critically injured, the authorities appeared to have waken up from a deep slumber. Soon after the bizarre accident, they announced that the government was going to construct overpasses for vehicles, at six risky level crossings in the city. The authorities stated that had there been an overpass or underpass, the accident could have been easily avoided.

One wonders whether such utterances are just to temporarily calm down the public outcry or a real commitment. The authorities had earlier given the same sort of assurances when such accidents had taken place. Yet nothing really happened. Most of the time those promises remained unredeemed. What will happen this time -- nobody knows for sure.

Indeed, an overwhelming number of recklessly-driven public transports are contributing to the intense traffic jams and the lack of road safety. Successive governments had taken up a number of short-term plans like construction of overpasses and underpasses for vehicles, connecting roads, bypasses, and east-west roads, but none of those initiatives was implemented so far. As such, traffic congestion in the city is increasing beyond manageable proportions, providing no visible solution in the near future. People are getting stuck in intolerable gridlock. They are being forced to wait inside vehicles for hours on their way to and from workplaces.

There is no denying that traffic congestion in the capital has worsened due to lack of implementation of supportive city infrastructure projects, and a virtual breakdown of traffic law enforcement. While a growing urban culture has been adding increasing numbers of motor vehicles in the capital over the recent years, all successive governments failed to urgently execute city infrastructure projects on time. Too much traffic, reckless driving, and non-compliance with traffic rules are the main reasons behind increasing number of accidents. The capital city has only 7.0 per cent of its area for roads while the normal international standard is to have 25 per cent. On an average, one person is killed in accidents daily in the capital. Reports say, over 0.2 million buses, trucks, and cars now operate on the city roads, while about 20,000 new vehicles on an average are hitting the roads every year.

Added to this, illegal parking, illegal occupation of roads, non-compliance with traffic rules, a lack of coordination among different agencies and ministries for managing city traffic, unplanned urbanisation, and frequent changes of policies are the major factors behind the present chaotic city traffic system. There are 30 rail crossings in the capital through which trains pass 84 times a day, contributing to the nagging traffic jam.

At present, bus routes are assigned haphazardly without any comprehensive study. This is one of the major reasons for the dismal traffic condition on roads. The immediate past caretaker government approved a 20-year Strategic Transport Plan (STP) to establish an integrated environment friendly traffic management system for greater Dhaka. The plan includes introduction of 17,400 square kilometres of water and surface ways in Dhaka and neighbouring Narayanganj, Narsingdi, Munshiganj, Gazipur, and Manikganj. Metro train services, elevated motorways, Bus Rapid Transit (BRT), roads connecting the east of the capital to the west, flyovers, footbridges, new roads, and repair of damaged thoroughfares are some of the other features of this plan. But there was virtually no headway in implementing that plan.

In order to address the issue of haphazard parking of vehicles which is one of the major contributors to traffic jam on many of the city thoroughfares, more multistoried parking lots do need to be built with concerted efforts by the government and the private sector and conditions will also require to be created and run them on commercial basis. This will help ease traffic congestion problem to a significant extent. Urgent attention should also be given to effective control of the movement of buses in and around the metropolis. Bus stoppages do need to be moved away from all traffic intersections. There has to be an effective end to random stopping along busy streets blocking smooth passage of other vehicles, as well.

At one stage, the previous government had banned running of vehicles over 20 years old that did have a positive impact on the overall state of traffic jam. But these vehicles returned to the streets only after a few months or so. The Bangladesh Road Transport Authority (BRTA) has turned a deaf ear to this problem. There is no doubt that such a problem is also contributing to severe traffic jam.

Even though the situation continues to worsen by the day, the communications minister appeared to remain upbeat. He told a national daily recently that he would implement some of the short-term STP measures in the quickest possible time to improve the traffic condition in the city. Citizens will wait for his words to be translated into action.

In its totality, the government needs to consider enhancing the road networking capacity of the city. All other measures are also called for, in order to effectively deal with the situation. Given the will, it is certainly not impossible to make a considerable difference to the currently prevailing acute state of traffic jam. szkhan@thefinancialexpress-bd.com