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TRAFFIC & TRANSPORT : PART — 1

The Chaos Called Dhaka Traffic

Save Dhaka

By Afzal H Khan
Traffic in Dhaka. the busy capital of a country ol 120 mil lion people, often comes to a virtual standstill This happens almost everyday, especially during the rush hours in the mornings, late afternoons and
evenings.
Woe tfelide the poor com muter who has io use the nar row. winding streets and al leys of the city at peak hours when the traffic movement re sembles a dangerous serpent either gone wild or gone to sleep.
The ubiquitous rickshaw, perhaps Dhaka's most easily recognisable mascot. weaves its slithering way. changlim from lane to lane with utter disdain: its noisy three wheeled motorised versions -the autorickshaw or the mishuk — do likewise, ol course with a greater degree ol arrogance: the minibuses with their badly dented bodies and smashed window-panes; the buses with the loud hydraulic horns: the trucks, either loaded sky-high or dragging along a mile-long trail of pipes or bamboos, their daredevil drivers never hesitating to assert at every turn and bend their absolute reign on the pot-holed, macadamized turf we call city roads. This Is Dhaka. Or Dhaka traffic. to be
more precise.
And why have things come to such a pass? pimply be-cause^-over the years, successive governments, for reasons best known to themselves, have either by design or default failed to tackle the tricky task of bringing a semblance of order on the streets.
Outdated laws, inefficient administration, incompetent, demoralised and thoroughly corrupt enforcers, an almost total lack of civic sense among road-users, and the general tendency of the public towards flouting rules have all contributed to compounding the erisls to such an extent that today any solution to this problem, which gets worse by the hour, seems a utopian dream.
The editor of a daily newspaper not too long ago described the problem thus: "As if there is no government, no city corporation, ho police, no nothing. Suu't from anywhere in the city, going to your destination becomes an Impossi ble ta'sk.
"Tiie moment you step out of your home, office or factory, you are caught in a traffic mess that can take anywhere between one to three hours to clear, if you are lucky." he wrote.
In fact, there is no dlsci-
The Chaos Called Dhaka Traffic
pllne on the roads. Nobody cares about traffic rules. Movement through city thoroughfares. both by vehicles (motorised and non-mo-torlsed) and pedestrians are controlled by their wills.
There are 2231.30 kilometers of roads and lanes in the city under the Jurisdiction of the Dhaka City Corporation (DCC). Most of these streets remained choked with different types of vehicles.
The traffic police, always in short numbers, remain helpless in this Jungle of vehicles all around them. More often than not. their directives or signals are ignored with impunity by one and all.
At some key points in the city, the roads become grid-’ locked with buses, trucks, cars, rickshaws and pushcarts heading in all directions, with the poor cop displaying great wisdom by walking away from his post to the relative peace at a roadside tea stall or the cooler comfort of a tall building or tree,
Ask him what the hell, what's going on and he is sure to come up with the most clever response: a shrug of his drooping shoulders, followed by .-> practised glance the other
way. ignoring both your inquiry and your insults.
And as if the simultaneous use of road lanes by slow and fast-moving vehicles, unauthorised parking, illegal overtak ing. mushrooming bazaars encroaching on the roads were not quite enough, the uncoordinated perpetual hunt for treasures hidden beneath the asphalt by such agencies as the T&T. Wasa. Desa. PDB. Titas Gas and what not adds to the already aggravated situation.
One of the major reasons behind the traffic congestion has been the rapid growth of the number of vehicles in the city. The villain of the piece is undoubtedly the- rickshaw, whose number has proliferated almost at pace with the other Dhaka hazard, the mosquito.
There are more than three lakh rickshaws in' the city, although the DCC will only own up to having provided licences For not more than 80 thousand. Despite a much-repeated ban on their manufacture, factories keep churning out the rickety contraptions by the dozens everyday.
According to the Bangladesh Road Transport Authority (BRTA) about 65 per
Will of the country’s total motor vehicles ply in the Dhaka city alone.
The number of motor vehicles had grown to 3.66.712 till December 1994 from a mere 1.97.758 In 1989, BRTA sources said adding that the existing city streets can hardly cope with the changed situation.
Prof Nazrul Islam, director of the Dhaka University-based Urban Studies Programme (USP). said there has not been a proportionate growth in the width of the roads in the capital although the number of vehicles and road-users has been growing by leaps and bounds. There have been very few diversion roads to ease the pressure on the main arterial roads, he said.
"The city roads have not been expanded in length or width. In a word, the road capacity has not increased. On the other hand, the number ol both motorised and non-mo torised vehicles is Increasing with the population growth."
Rallies, processions, meet Ings by different political, social and cultural organisations on the streets are another obstacle against the normal flow of vehicles.