Mohakhali Flyover
Unruly drivers obstruct traffic
It is an everyday phenomenon at the Banani end of Mohakhali flyover that hundreds of vehicles remain stranded during peak office hours, as unruly drivers intending to go straight to Mohakhali intersection from Kakoli take the right lane, blocking the flyover’s up ramp.
Moreover, the bus drivers pick and drop passengers at the ramp in the very presence of traffic police. This foils the flyover’s sole purpose of helping smooth flow of traffic.
“It is ridiculous that the flyover facility created with public money is rendered useless when it is needed most due to the whims of rowdy motorists,” said Iftekhar-uz-Zaman, a Banani resident and a daily user of the flyover.
The outrageous fact is that it all happens in the presence of traffic police, he said.
Gulshan resident Farhana Kabir said, “It is a sheer mockery of public plights caused by Dhaka’s horrendous traffic congestion that rowdy drivers foil the purpose of a traffic facility just at will and the law enforcers remain onlookers.”
Abu Saleh, a bus driver, who was blocking the ramp lane last week, said he did so to avoid the long traffic queue on the left and wanted to go ahead by taking the right.
Mubasshar Hussain, a past president of the Institute of Architects, Bangladesh, observed that this nuisance could be prevented by lengthening the lane divider further towards Kakoli from the flyover ramp so that vehicles of the left lane could not arbitrarily obstruct the right lane meant for the flyover.
But police’s role is a must to prevent the use of the flyover ramp as a “bus stoppage”, he said.
Ruhul Amin, deputy commissioner of north zone of traffic police, said it was a faulty traffic design to terminate the flyover in Banani, which should have been extended as far as Kakoli.
As to negligence of duty policemen, he said police did as much as they could. When asked about stopping of buses at the ramp, the official said he would instruct traffic police about it.
Sirajul Islam, chief town planner of Dhaka South City Corporation, said the problem could easily be removed if police just penalised some offenders on the spot.
-With The Daily Star input
