Traffic jam brings city to near standstill : Govt efforts fail to bring relief to commuters

Traffic situation in the capital has been deteriorating gradually, causing untold sufferings to hundreds of commuters.
The dwellers have been witnessing again serious traffic congestion in most of the important city points ahead of the Eid-ul Fitr. It usually takes about one and a half hours to travel a distance of six kilometres during peak times but it now takes more than three times.
The government’s efforts to ease the nagging traffic congestion have failed due to shortage of necessary equipment and lack of coordination among the law enforcing agencies.
Police sources said that they had not sufficient forces to maintain traffic rules in the city.
Vendors have occupied footpaths and some portions of lanes, by-lanes and wider roads. They are encroaching upon most of the vacant places in connivance with a section of law-enforcing agencies and Dhaka City Corporation’s (DCC) officials.
Witnesses said every intersection in the city and frontal areas of shopping malls experience serious gatherings ahead of the Eid shopping. Traffic jam causes untold sufferings to the people going to offices and various other destinations, including Eid shopping.
In front of the Shopping malls in New Market, Mouchak, Gulshan, Panthopath and Boshundhara traffic situation are always worse.
The worst traffic vulnerable points include, among others, Jatrabari, Hatkhola, Shapla Chattar, Gulisthan, Paltan, New Market, Science Laboratory area, Shahbagh, Bangla Motor, Sonargaon crossing, Panthopath, Farmgate, Manik Mian Avenue, Asadgate, Shyamoli, Kalyanpur, Gabtoli, Mirpur Goolchakkar, Mohakhali, Khilgaon, Banani, Mouchak, Kakrail and Malibagh.
Now-a-days residential areas are also experiencing heavy traffic-jam. The areas include Dhanmondi, Banani, Gulshan and other prime residential locations.
A large number of cars park illegally on the roadside, which is also one of the main causes for traffic congestion in the city.
Police sources said parking on the road causes serious traffic congestions in different areas of the city.
They jostle for space on the narrow roads with another half a million paddle-rickshaws turning the traffic system in the metropolis in a shamble.
At one stage, the government had banned running of vehicles over 20 years old that did have a positive impact on the overall state of traffic jam. But these vehicles returned to the streets only after a few months or so. The Bangladesh Road Transport Authority (BRTA) has turned a deaf ear to this problem. There is no doubt that such a problem is also contributing to severe traffic jam.
The government needs to consider enhancing the road networking capacity of the city. All other measures are also called for, in order to effectively deal with the situation. Given the will, it is certainly not impossible to make a considerable difference to the prevailing acute state of traffic jam.
For curbing traffic jam ahead of Eid, the government shut dawn all schools and colleges in the city. But the city dwellers could not be removed from the traffic jam, sources said.

Courtesy of The New Nation