News Desk :
Hundreds of commuters were greeted by gridlocks on Thursday morning, as a head-on collision between a bus and a van on Bijoy Sarani Road triggered traffic jams across Dhaka.
The Bijoy Sarani gridlock around 7am saw long tailbacks that eventually spilled over to major roads of the city, hauling traffic on several stretches — Uttara to Mohakhali and Agargaon to Bijoy Sarani, and in areas such as Mirpur, Bangla Motor and Tejgaon, reports UNB.
The worst hit were the office-goers and school and college students. In some areas, the jams intensified as few motorists tried to reverse their vehicles to reach their destinations fast.
A senior executive of a private firm, said, “I started my journey from Uttara around 9.45 am to go to my office in the Malibagh area but it took me nearly one hour to reach Radisson Hotel.”
Normal traffic could be restored only around 10am after the two vehicles were removed from the road.
A senior traffic officer of Dhaka Metropolitan Police, said the two vehicles crashed into each other, leading to jams across the capital.
“The vehicles have been removed from the road and the traffic situation is improving across the city,” he told UNB.
Construction work taking place on the roads should be paused for the month and the authorities should make as much room as possible for vehicles. Through constant vigilance, the authorities should free the footpaths from vendors, crack down on illegal parking, and buses should not be allowed to block traffic by stopping at the intersections.
Abul Kalam, of Mirpur, said it took him almost two and a half hours to reach his office in Paltan over the last two weeks.
The scorching heat adds to the woes, he added. “Things will be even more unbearable this week.”
Miroza Parvin, mother of a third grader in Senpara, said for the last few days walking to school has been faster than taking the car.
“We don’t want disruption to our children’s education. But considering the traffic situation, the government could have adopted a hybrid of online and in-person classes,” said Miroza, whose son’s school is in the cantonment area.
On the other hand, many people would come
to the capital from outside Dhaka to look for work and for business purposes.
Contacted, Abu Raihan Mohammad Saleh, joint commissioner (Traffic North) of DMP, said police have plans to deploy additional forces from the crime divisions to ensure motorists are following rules.
Police will also launch a special operation against vehicles which will breach traffic rules. “We’ll give special focus on passenger buses that stop wherever the driver wishes,” he told the media.
He said they would hold meetings with owners of city service buses and request them to instruct transport workers to follow traffic rules and maintain discipline on roads.
“We’ll take drastic action if anyone violates traffic rules and stops vehicles to pick up and drop off passengers on the roads,” said Raihan. Traffic jams at certain hours are quite common in megacities around the world and Dhaka is among the worst.
In the World Traffic Index 2020, Dhaka ranked 10th in terms of poor traffic management among 228 cities.
The major factors behind this are shortage of roads and inefficient traffic management. Besides, the existing public transport system fails to address the desirable mobility needs of the people in terms of reliability, comfort, speed, and safety.
