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Tailbacks all along

Traffic crawls every day at Rainbow intersection

Helemul Alam and Tamanna Khan
Dust, potholes, boulders, and vehides moving at tortoise speed- this is the story of the capital's Rainbow intersection where the road from in front of Hotel Sonargaon runs into Hatirjheel cutting across Tongi Diversion Road.
Materials for the construction work of Moghbazar-Mouchak flyover are piled up alongside the road and heavy machinery and equipment kept in an endosure right in the middle of the road beginning from the Film Development Corporation (FDC) gate to Saatrasta on the right and Moghbazar on the left.
This has made the roads almost dysfunctional.
Even those who use the Hatirjheel roads as short-cut from Rampura to areas in Dhaka's west have to wait for a long time to cross the Rainbow intersection, where the traffic is managed manually.
Visiting the troubled intersection around 2:00pm yesterday, our correspondents found long tailbacks on all the roads crisscrossing the spot.
Md Uzzal Hossain, driver of a pick-up van, said he had been waiting for the signal to clear for about 10 minutes.
"I use this [Hatirjheel] road to go to Gabtoli from Rampura quickly, but sometimes I have to wait even for 20 minutes to cross the intersection," he said.
Traffic constable Khalilur Rahman, who was on duty at the intersection at that time, said, "Usually traffic movement on each road is allowed for about 2 to 2.5 minutes. But it mostly depends on traffic pressure."
Khalil said that they work in two shifts, each of which has four constables and a seigeant at the intersection. However, at 2:30pm yesterday only two constables were seen trying frantically to manage traffic swarming from all around.
He said that the others would come soon.
Traffic Inspector Maksud Ur Rahman of Mohakhali zone told The Daily Star that the main reason for the snarl-ups is the dilapidated condition of roads due to the construction of the flyover along theTongi Diversion Road.
"The decrepit road slows down vehicles ... Moreover, when trains pass through the two level crossings - one near the FDC and the other on Tongi Diversion Road - the red signal has to be kept longer."
"Construction equipment kept on the roads has narrowed them down further, making it difficult for vehicles to pass," hesaid.
A source in the traffic department said the area between Saatrasta and Moghbazar falls under three traffic zones - Mohakhali, Sabujbag and Ramna.
"Lack of coordination among traffic police of these three zones also causes tailbacks," the source told The Daily Star, wishing anonymity.
According to Maksud, if the road through Saatrasta truck stand was kept clear, vehicles could use it to go to Farmgate instead of using the Hotel Sonargaon road which would largely reduce the traffic pressure at the intersection.