Reza Mahmud :
Anarchy rules the city transport system in the indiscipline resorted to by bus owners and transport workers is only adding to untold suffering of passengers. The system is entirely left to the whims of the operators and it seems there is none to enforce traffic rules to make passengers life safe.
Experts said the chaos in Dhaka streets unrivaled other cities in the region such as India, Thailand, Indonesia, Singapore and Malaysia. City traffic is well organized and well managed in these countries leaving the streets clean and with lower rate of accidents.
Many raise questions if they can better manage their city traffic well why our leaders are failing. They must have accountability instead of misleading people by talking too much and producing too little to mitigate the suffering of city dwellers.
Bangladesh is the only country in the region where major streets in the capital remained congested throughout the day and people loss thousands of work hours waiting in overcrowded transports as traffic police can do little to mitigate the traffic chaos.
But in the same city many other routes run fewer transports and show less congested to suggest the city administration lacks proper planning to make better distribution of transports throughout the city network during peak and off peak period.
It is a common scene that when most major city streets show tailback of overcrowded transports running through business districts others running through industrial and residential districts show less crowded.
Moreover passengers are regularly subject to inordinate harassment in the hands of transport workers. They collect excess fare from many ignoring the fare chart hanging in the bus in one hand and unload passengers often at the middle of the streets at undesignated place or force them to step down when the bus runs slow. Drivers and helpers neglect to stop the bus designated bus stop and it often results in fatal accidents.
Whimsical halting of transports at undesignated spots often leads to developing serious traffic gridlock adding to suffering of the people at major city intersection.
Amidst such indiscipline in the streets, city traffic police seems partly helpless to restore order in peak hours while their inefficiency is no
less responsible to bring the system under control.
It is an open secret that they allow unfit busses to operate in the city in exchange of bribe. Moreover powerful bus owners and transport workers union also pay little heed to obey traffic discipline in the streets.
Powerful people even run their luxurious vehicles in the wrong side of the streets and traffic police often cooperate to such illegal practice taking into consideration the power of those people and their powerless position in city streets.
Chaos in the city streets stems from various factors. Quoting study reports Abu Naser Khan, Chairman of Paribesh Banchao Andolon said about 32 lakh working hours is being wasted everyday from traffic tailback in the city. Its financial costs are Tk 98,000 crore annually which is about 7 percent of the country’s GDP.
He said people cannot get rid of the acute sufferings of every day’s traffic gridlock until major city road infrastructure could be implemented like express way, metro rail, more flyovers and underpass in major city intersection.
Moreover, disciplining bus operators and transport workers remain the major hurdle which again needs willingness of the political leadership to bring pressure on them to change their outlook.
According to Bangladesh Road Transport Authority and Bangladesh Sarak Paribahan Malik Samity, there are around 38,000 buses and minibuses registered with BRTA and over 140 companies are operating them through 54 main city routes in the capital.
It is not easy to remove traffic tailback from city streets. The government and both city corporations have taken several projects but the results are coming slow.
One such project taken by DNCC is to take all buss operators under one umbrella franchised under six major routes. Late Mayor Annisul Huq has also planned to import over 4000 new buses to run better transport in the city especially Dhaka-Gazipur road corridor. His death made the fate of the scheme uncertain.
The government has also established Dhaka Transport Coordination Board (DTCB) back in 1998 and it has been renamed as Dhaka Transport Coordination Authority in September 2012. But naming and renaming is not enough if they don’t produce results and they are slow to produce results.
The DTCA has selected two city corridors to start the pilot projects. One is from the Airport to Sayedabad through Progati Saroni. The other is from Kuril to Sector-2 of RAJUK’s Purbachol Model Town.
“It is not an easy matter to bring bus operators under one company in each route. The DTCA has formed a committee only. We are now searching financial supports to implement the project.
“It is needed to construct some depot or terminals in certain route for buses. We are talking to Bangladesh Investment Development Authority (BIDA) and Public Private Partnership Authority (PPP) for financing,” Syed Ahmed, Executive Director of DTCA told The New Nation.
The committee also has representation from DSCC, DNCC, RAJUK, DMP, BRTA, BRTC, Roads and highways ministry and transports owners associations.
Syed Ahmed said, “It is not easy to bring different operators under one company. But we have started to talk with the stakeholders,” he said.
Iqbal Habib, an Architect and Urban Specialist held the view that DTCA is failing because it has not enough staff. Only tree persons are experts in transportation, others among 77 professionals in the organisation are not experts directly related in transport operations to make effective contribution.
When contacted, Khondaker Enayet Ullah, Secretary General of Bangladesh Sarak Paribahan Malik Samity told The New Nation, “There are some indiscipline remaining in the sector. We are keen to eliminate those. We are ready to help DTCA to solve all anarchies and misrules in this sector.”
Anarchy rules the city transport system in the indiscipline resorted to by bus owners and transport workers is only adding to untold suffering of passengers. The system is entirely left to the whims of the operators and it seems there is none to enforce traffic rules to make passengers life safe.
Experts said the chaos in Dhaka streets unrivaled other cities in the region such as India, Thailand, Indonesia, Singapore and Malaysia. City traffic is well organized and well managed in these countries leaving the streets clean and with lower rate of accidents.
Many raise questions if they can better manage their city traffic well why our leaders are failing. They must have accountability instead of misleading people by talking too much and producing too little to mitigate the suffering of city dwellers.
Bangladesh is the only country in the region where major streets in the capital remained congested throughout the day and people loss thousands of work hours waiting in overcrowded transports as traffic police can do little to mitigate the traffic chaos.
But in the same city many other routes run fewer transports and show less congested to suggest the city administration lacks proper planning to make better distribution of transports throughout the city network during peak and off peak period.
It is a common scene that when most major city streets show tailback of overcrowded transports running through business districts others running through industrial and residential districts show less crowded.
Moreover passengers are regularly subject to inordinate harassment in the hands of transport workers. They collect excess fare from many ignoring the fare chart hanging in the bus in one hand and unload passengers often at the middle of the streets at undesignated place or force them to step down when the bus runs slow. Drivers and helpers neglect to stop the bus designated bus stop and it often results in fatal accidents.
Whimsical halting of transports at undesignated spots often leads to developing serious traffic gridlock adding to suffering of the people at major city intersection.
Amidst such indiscipline in the streets, city traffic police seems partly helpless to restore order in peak hours while their inefficiency is no
less responsible to bring the system under control.
It is an open secret that they allow unfit busses to operate in the city in exchange of bribe. Moreover powerful bus owners and transport workers union also pay little heed to obey traffic discipline in the streets.
Powerful people even run their luxurious vehicles in the wrong side of the streets and traffic police often cooperate to such illegal practice taking into consideration the power of those people and their powerless position in city streets.
Chaos in the city streets stems from various factors. Quoting study reports Abu Naser Khan, Chairman of Paribesh Banchao Andolon said about 32 lakh working hours is being wasted everyday from traffic tailback in the city. Its financial costs are Tk 98,000 crore annually which is about 7 percent of the country’s GDP.
He said people cannot get rid of the acute sufferings of every day’s traffic gridlock until major city road infrastructure could be implemented like express way, metro rail, more flyovers and underpass in major city intersection.
Moreover, disciplining bus operators and transport workers remain the major hurdle which again needs willingness of the political leadership to bring pressure on them to change their outlook.
According to Bangladesh Road Transport Authority and Bangladesh Sarak Paribahan Malik Samity, there are around 38,000 buses and minibuses registered with BRTA and over 140 companies are operating them through 54 main city routes in the capital.
It is not easy to remove traffic tailback from city streets. The government and both city corporations have taken several projects but the results are coming slow.
One such project taken by DNCC is to take all buss operators under one umbrella franchised under six major routes. Late Mayor Annisul Huq has also planned to import over 4000 new buses to run better transport in the city especially Dhaka-Gazipur road corridor. His death made the fate of the scheme uncertain.
The government has also established Dhaka Transport Coordination Board (DTCB) back in 1998 and it has been renamed as Dhaka Transport Coordination Authority in September 2012. But naming and renaming is not enough if they don’t produce results and they are slow to produce results.
The DTCA has selected two city corridors to start the pilot projects. One is from the Airport to Sayedabad through Progati Saroni. The other is from Kuril to Sector-2 of RAJUK’s Purbachol Model Town.
“It is not an easy matter to bring bus operators under one company in each route. The DTCA has formed a committee only. We are now searching financial supports to implement the project.
“It is needed to construct some depot or terminals in certain route for buses. We are talking to Bangladesh Investment Development Authority (BIDA) and Public Private Partnership Authority (PPP) for financing,” Syed Ahmed, Executive Director of DTCA told The New Nation.
The committee also has representation from DSCC, DNCC, RAJUK, DMP, BRTA, BRTC, Roads and highways ministry and transports owners associations.
Syed Ahmed said, “It is not easy to bring different operators under one company. But we have started to talk with the stakeholders,” he said.
Iqbal Habib, an Architect and Urban Specialist held the view that DTCA is failing because it has not enough staff. Only tree persons are experts in transportation, others among 77 professionals in the organisation are not experts directly related in transport operations to make effective contribution.
When contacted, Khondaker Enayet Ullah, Secretary General of Bangladesh Sarak Paribahan Malik Samity told The New Nation, “There are some indiscipline remaining in the sector. We are keen to eliminate those. We are ready to help DTCA to solve all anarchies and misrules in this sector.”
