Saturday | 11 January 2025 | Reg No- 06
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Saturday | 11 January 2025 | Epaper

Dhaka Traffic uninterrupted: A utopia!

Published : Thursday, 22 June, 2017 at 12:00 AM  Count : 308
Mir Abdul Alim
Dhaka is called the city of traffic congestion. Commuters have become uncomfortable due to constant uninterrupted traffic congestion. Flyovers have been built in various places of the city to solve traffic congestion. The effective progress in solving the traffic problem is still not being noticed.
Work hours are lost on traffic congestions every day. The fuel is being wasted. The economic development of the country is being hampered. The capital is gradually becoming a dormant city. In 2030 the population will be 30 million. To make Dhaka capital adequate for everyone, this crisis must be checked.  
It is possible to reduce the traffic congestion if we have many roads in our current situation. The major cities of the world, even during the Hajj, Mecca, Medina, if we look at the traffic control system during the Olympic Games and other major events, then we can know how easy it is to control the traffic jam.
In the Olympic Games, the private vehicles are allowed to move based on their even or odd numbered car. One day even numbered cars are allowed, the next day the cars with odd numbers can.
At times, outside city vehicles are not allowed to enter the city. In that case, the government already announces the news so that there is no suffering, no traffic congestion.
The policy to solve could be providing the parking needs, stopping free parking and conducting fines for illegal parking, paying for parking fees according to the place and time norms, and taking parking fees from public transport as well.
In case of private car movements in the city, accepting congestion charges, limiting private car licenses, and public transport in the office-court instead of private cars, construction of private cargo infrastructure (flyover, park parking) could come of help for the city dwellers. Moreover, the followings should be proposed: increase public transport, fuel-free travel and pedestrian facilities.
Nowadays it takes 1 hour to cross a 15min distance. Along with rickshaws, the access of private cars should be challenged. But the traffic management is mainly responsible for traffic congestion.
Due to the illegal occupation, the streets of the capital are not usable by the commuters. If the congestion can be solved in the sidewalks of the capital, the traffic congestion will be tolerable. In addition to this, buses do not abide by the traffic law. If discipline can be established in the traffic movement it is possible to put an end to the traffic congestion.
There is a lack of proper planning and decision-making in the city's traffic congestion. There is a nominal price or free space allotted for private car parking in Dhaka.
In the City Center at Motijheel area, 10 floors have been allocated for the 500 private car parking arrangements. According to Dhaka City Corporation, about 4,000 private cars are parked in the Motijheel-Dilkusha area every day. It is not possible to control traffic congestion by increasing parking facilities if the private car is not in control and the government cannot provide alternative transportation facilities.
This problem is creating catastrophic effects in the economy. It is possible to prevent the tendency of being in Dhaka without decentralization of government-owned private offices. To protect Dhaka from traffic congestion, there is no alternative to frequent metro rail service, subway, transit facility, parking metre, double-decker bus service.
Empowering the elected representatives by empowering the local government bureau is important. Otherwise it will not be possible to deal with the situation.
According to the World Bank, it is impossible to reduce the traffic congestion in the present condition of the capital. Many even suggest that if the army is deployed in Dhaka to look after the traffic system, this crisis will surely end!

Mir Abdul Alim is Chairman, Al-Rafi Hospital Ltd, and a columnist




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