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Innovative plan to reduce traffic jam at city's level crossings

Train services to be suspended at busy hours in mornings and evenings

RlZAN'UZZAMAN LASKAR
Bangladesh railway plans to suspend its train services for two hours and ten minutes in the mornings and evenings in the city to ease traffic congestions at the level crossings.
If implemented, the city’s 15 rail tracks will be without trains from 8:00am to 9:00am in the morning and 5:10pm to 6:00pm in the evening.
"The idea is to reduce traffic congestions in the level crossings during the office opening and closing hours," said a Bangladesh Railway (BR) spokesperson, adding the railway has already worked out a compromise schedule.
Timing of around 14 trains in the eastern zone of BR will be adjusted in tone with the proposed schedule. However, a handful of commuter trains will not come within the pur-■ view of the new scheme, railway '■ sources said
Commuter trains are regional • trains that shuttle between central business districts and commuter belts. Dhaka has a number of commuter trains operating within shorter distance such as Tongi Gazipur drawing a large number of~ people on a daily basis.
“As a large number of people depends on the commuter trains, adjourning them in the office hours will create problems for them. Furthermore, those people would have to opt for buses and other transportation adding to the traffic tailback, said a top official concerned at BR.
According to sources in the BR,
the new plan is currently being reviewed and evaluated. While no date for its implementation is yet to be specified, railway officials hoped to finalise it within the next month.
The new initiative from the railway comes at a time when traffic situation in the city have reached a state of chaos.
With 72 trains arriving at and departing from Kamalapur Railway Station every day, each of the 18 level crossings in the city experiences a total traffic halt for over six hours a day, railway sources said.
Railway officials said around five minutes are lost when a train passes
a level crossing. “If we calculate the time lost for passing of 72 trains, it would be 360 minutes,” said an official.
Traffic officials also believe level crossings often contribute to the traffic disorder. "Streets with rail crossings frequently witness the worse kinds of tailbacks. They stretch a long way and create traffic congestions in the link roads and adjacent regions," said Sohel Arman, a traffic sergeant who was on duty near the Malibagh rail crossing.
Citing the Malibagh level crossing as an example, he tried to explain the
severity of the traffic congestions near level crossings. “When a train passes through this crossing, it creates a tailback up to the Mouchak market, another one goes towards Khilgaon while the third one towards Rampura. Each of these tailbacks, in the end, creates traffic chaos in the adjacent areas,” he said.
The traffic situation further aggravates when motorists lock themselves in overtaking each other violating traffic rules. Rickshaws, small vehicles and pedestrians are often found crossing the level crossings when a train is about to pass. They ignore the red signal and cross
the rail tracks even when the bar is lowered, traffic official observed.
Rail crossings across the city often turn into death traps for people due to violation of traffic rules and lack of awareness among the city dwellers, they said.
According to Bangladesh Railway data, at least 172 people were killed from January till September 2006 in accidents on the 39 kilometresTongi-Dhaka-Narayanganj line. In 2007 the number of people killed was more than 119. A good number of these accidents occurred at level crossings, especially during the rush hours.
Md. Belayet Hossain, Director General of Bangladesh Railway however expressed his scepticism about the effectiveness of the new scheme.
"I think one hour of recess in the operation of train twice a day would make little difference in the severe traffic congestion of the city. But it's a start," said Belayet Hossain.
Successive governments have pledged to relocate the rail tracks to address the city's perennial traffic problem but none has so far acted positively on the issue.
Dhaka Transport Coordination Board (DTCB) also had a plan to construct partial grade separation (bridges over the rail crossing) at existing level crossings of the city to ease traffic congestion. However, experts opposed the idea.
The government is also not inter-2 ested to shift Dhaka’s central rail J station from Kamalapur to outside « the city considering that it would increase the cost of carrying goods into the capital, some officials said.