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City traffic, life choked

Series of street protest causes miles ot tailbacks throughout the day

Kailash Sarkar
Traffic system in the capita) virtually collapsed yesterday due to several processions and demonstrations that forced thousands of vehicles to remain stranded for hours and inflicted untold sufferings on commuters.
While traffic gridlock is a regular scene in the capital, yesterday's situation was the worst in recent times. The gridlock was triggered by demonstrations staged on various roads by students of different educational institutions, activists of different organisations and trade bodies and also some other pressure groups.
Witnesses said demonstrators put up blockades on the roads and the impacts
lasted for the best part of the day hampering traffic movement in the entire city.
The demonstrations took place in Gulistan. Gulshan-1. Kemal Ataturk Avenue (North South University), Mohammadpur (Graphic Arts College) and Eskaton between 10:00am and 5:00pm.
Another protest was being staged after the evening at the Suhrawardi Hospital.
The demonstrations also prompted the police to put up their own barricades on several roads to avert attack on vehicles by the agitators and divert the vehicles to other roads to avoid traffic congestion.
According to witnesses, policemen themselves blocked the roads from Kakrail to Gulshan via Moghbazar,
Tejgaon, Mohakhali and Gulshan to due to demonstrations by the students of North South University (NSU), activists of Muktijoddha Kendriya Command Council and Indian visa seekers.
As vehicular movement on several roads remained suspended, the- traffic police tried to divert the tailbacks to other roads, which already had no capacity to absorb the overload of extra vehicles. As a result, the joint efforts of several thousand traffic police and regular police went in vain.
Jasim Uddin, joint commissioner (traffic) of Dhaka Metropolitan Police (DMP).said, "Half-an-hourtrafficdisrup-tion on a single road results traffic jam for over two hours. But today it was a different scenario as students of several educational institutions, various social organisations, trade bodies and also a number of general people put up barricades at a time at different places for hours."
The witnesses said over 1,000 traders and employees at Sundarban Square Market in Fulbaria in Gulistan put up barricades on the roads for over three hours since 10:00am in protest against burglary at five shops.
In another incident, several hundred Indian visa seekers blockaded Gulshan-1 road and staged demonstrations in front of the High Commission for over two hours from 12:30pm as they failed to submit visa prayers.
Students of Graphic Arts College in Mohammadpur put up barricades on Satmasjid Road from 12:00noon and staged demonstrations for over one and a half hours in protest against an exam decision of the authorities.
The agitating students of North South University took to the streets putting barricades on the busy Gulshan-2 road for over two hours halting the traffic from 3:00pm. The students demonstrated as the authorities decided to chargeTk 16,500 for a three-credit course instead ofTk 12,000.
Elsewhere in Eskaton, both factions of Muktijoddha Sangsad Kendriya Command Council showed off power to capture the office by organising separate programmes in and outside the office.
Each faction gathered several hundred freedom fighters to show their strength putting up barricades on the road for two hours from 4:00pm.
Joint Commissioner Jasim Uddin said, "An ideal city requires at least 25 percent road space. But we have only seven percent and at least 30 percent of roads is occupied by illegal parking."
He said most of the footpaths are not fit for use and remain occupied by hawkers.
Sources say over five lakh vehicles ply on the city roads. Of them, 115,180 are motor cars, 46.128 buses, 6,152 minibuses, 12,277 taxis, 8,092 microbuses, 25,193 trucks, 13,521 autorickshaws. 176,667 motorcycles and over 22,000 are other motorised vehicles.
Apart from these, there are 89,750 licensed and over two lakh unregistered rickshaws plyinginthecity.