No room for new vehicles

Vehicles already 7 times the road capacity
The number of vehicles is around seven times the capacity of the roads in the capital.
In last six years, the volume of motorised and non-motorised vehicles has almost doubled, while the city has seen only two new thoroughfares–Doyaganj-Jurain and Bijoy Sarani-Agargaon–built in last two decades, said traffic management and road transport officials.
With 250-300 kilometres of roads, Dhaka has room for around 1.5 lakh vehicles. But it has to accommodate over 10 lakh vehicles, accounting for much of the unrelenting traffic congestion, they added.
Tapan Kumar Sarkar, director of Bangladesh Road Transport Authority, told The Daily Star that at least 5.25 lakh motorised vehicles ply the city streets now, while it was 3.03 lakh in 2003.
On average, 180 new vehicles including motorbikes step onto the city streets every day, Sarkar added.
Sources in Dhaka Metropolitan Police (traffic) said the number of non-motorised vehicles in the capital is over five lakh.
In 1992, there used to be 246.49 vehicles on every kilometre of the city roads. That number at present is around 500 vehicles per km.
DMP Joint Commissioner Shafiqur Rahman told The Daily Star that a megacity like Dhaka should have 25 percent of its size dedicated to roads.
But in reality, only 8 percent of its total area is claimed by roads, and 3 percent of that is meant for public transport and heavy vehicles.
Of the total city size, 45 percent is occupied by residential establishments, 15 percent by mills, factories and shopping malls, 20 percent by administrative and academic establishments and 12 percent is used for other purposes.
To make things even worse, there is an acute shortage of traffic personnel.
Metropolitan police officials said only 730 people have been recruited to DMP (traffic) in last six years.
In 2003, 2,265 DMP personnel used to handle 6.53 lakh vehicles, and now 2,995 have to control over 10 lakh vehicles.
DMP (traffic) was divided into two zones in 2000 and into four in 2006.
Apart from manpower shortage, it faces a transport crisis. As the department has only nine vehicles, it has to rely on requisitioned cars for use by its personnel, added the officials.
ABM Shahjahan, former executive director of Dhaka Transport Co-ordination Board (DTCB), said the authorities concerned should encourage people to reduce the use of private cars and commute more on public transport like double-deckers.
By introducing hefty peak-hour charge on private cars, the authorities can discourage unnecessary use of those.
Besides, he added, minibuses, human hauliers and similar modes of transport should be removed from the city streets.
DMP Commissioner AKM Shahidul Hoque said the traffic situation worsens for lack of co-ordination among different government and semi-autonomous bodies responsible for managing vehicles and their movement in the city.
Joint Commissioner Shafiqur said most of the organisations concerned seem content to have left street management entirely on traffic police.
For instance, he said, Dhaka City Corporation issues licence for rickshaws, but it does little to seize illegal rickshaws. Similarly, BRTA hardly acts against illegal and unfit vehicles and drivers with fake licences.

Courtesy of The Daily Star