Dhaka commuters get no respite from traffic gridlocks

Traffic gridlock has been a chronic speak in Dhaka, the overcrowded capital city of Bangladesh.

What bothers town dwellers most is that the incidents of long tailbacks are getting longer, turning commuting into a nightmare.

The traffic jams had been a longstanding discipline, but they’ve now now not too long ago taken a extreme flip.

Police maintain yet to technique to work in fat drive following the downfall of the Sheikh Hasina government on 5 August.

Experts held disorder parking, buses stopping haphazardly for passengers, occupation of footpaths, a shortage of road disclose when put next with the kind of autos, unplanned urbanisation, incompetence and corruption among traffic managers, lack of systematic planning, unhappy enforcement of criminal pointers, and the concentration of industries and locations of work, accountable for the rising struggling.

Metropolis dwellers alleged that even supposing traffic police returned to work after their abstention, they hadn’t been found active like sooner than the fall of the Awami League government.

The traffic jam will snatch a primary flip if the normalcy doesn’t return to the traffic police individuals, they seen.

The kind of autos — buses, autos, CNG autorickshaws, ambulances, bicycles, and autos — has surged, exacerbating the difficulty.

Finally of the absence of the traffic police on the streets, college students took it upon themselves to regulate traffic. Amid the chaos, thousands of unauthorized battery-operated rickshaws took to the streets from the alleys, worsening the traffic jam.

What public transport passengers whisper about the jams

Talking to quite so a lot of passengers looking ahead to autos at Press Membership, Paltan intersection, Mouchak and Natun Bazar intersection, it became as soon as learned that while traffic jams are a every day fact, basically the most modern speak has grown increasingly more dire.

Urging the period in-between government to grab effective measures to handle the difficulty, commuters alleged they had to be stuck in public transport for hours due to the traffic jams.

Banker Ruhul Anisur Rahman criticised the traffic police for failing to regulate the difficulty successfully, calling their most modern feature as passive observers.

Ferdous, who regularly uses public transport ‘Green Dhaka’ to transfer between Kuril and Natun Bazar, talked about some other folks are contributing to traffic jam by brushing apart traffic rules.

He advisable stricter enforcement by traffic police may perchance also mitigate the difficulty, but neatly-known that such measures maintain now now not been visible now now not too long ago.

The rise of unauthorised battery-operated rickshaws and budge rickshaws on main roads has ended in disarray. Many drivers disregard traffic criminal pointers, and the streets are crowded with these autos, contributing to increased risk and accidents.

One other passenger talked about earlier that he may perchance also scuttle from Paltan to Kuril inner one hour, but now it takes round two and a half of hours.

Chief Adviser’s directives to handle the traffic jam

In a gathering on 16 September, the period in-between government chief, Dr Muhammad Yunus, known as on the police and consultants from the Bangladesh University of Engineering and Abilities (BUET) to search out swift and effective solutions.

What the traffic police whisper about the discipline

Traffic police officers, alongside side Dhaka Metropolitan Police’s Extra Commissioner Khondkar Nazmul Hasan, talked about they are actively working to handle the congestion and attributed the discipline to varied external elements, alongside side protests and the growing kind of unauthorised autos.

He instructed that they’ve been conducting drives against unauthorised autos plying on the streets and imposing fines on the regulations violators.

Dr Adil Muhammad Khan, a Jahangirnagar University professor and also worn overall secretary of Bangladesh Institute of Planners, neatly-known that the rise in automobile numbers is outpacing the enlargement of road infrastructure.

The educated talked about that the kind of autos is growing in Dhaka, however the roads are now now not growing accordingly. Within the outdated couple of years, the kind of autos and bikes in Dhaka has increased a lot. The set autos are speculated to be diminished, the kind of autos is repeatedly growing. Existing Roads can now now not handle so many autos.

The urban planner talked about the government formulated the Strategic Transport Thought (STP) in 2005 to minimize traffic jam in Dhaka. If that idea of 2005 may perchance even be implemented, then there would had been loads of enchancment in 2024. That is, traffic jam became as soon as now now not speculated to expand. Then over again, the thought may perchance now now not be implemented.

He addressed the shortcoming of effective public transportation recommendations as a important component contributing to traffic jam, stressing the want for better administration and planning.