Sagar Biswas :The residents of Dhaka city are now experiencing severe traffic gridlock not only in the busy day-time, but also at night due to heavy shopping by the city dwellers ahead of Eid-ul Fitr, the largest festival of the Muslim community. Traffic Department of Dhaka Metropolitan Police [DMP] although had taken several steps to improve the city’s traffic situation, it did not work due to poor enforcement of laws and inefficient monitoring of concerned department, sufferers alleged.The unplanned movement of vehicles has been causing immense sufferings to the dwellers at Motijheel and other areas including Naya Paltan, Purana Paltan, Bijoy Nagar, Dilkusha, Shahbagh, Kakrail, Syedabad, Jatrabari, Firmgate, Mohakhali, Airport, Banani, Gulshan and Uttara from early morning till mid-night every day.Vehicular movement in these areas virtually comes to a halt for hours together causing untold suffering to commuters, Eid-shoppers, home-bound city dwellers and travellers of the long routes outside Dhaka.Syedul Haque, a private university teacher, said, “It is killing unlimited work hours and sapping commuters’ energy and working ability every day. The financial losses are beyond measure though informal studies estimate it for billions of taka.”There is a widespread allegation that the traffic police take little action against the lawbreakers for fear of backlash from influential people or for bribe. Besides, most of the electronic signals are not operating now. Not only that, the DMP Traffic Department also could not enforce the pedestrians to take footpath, footbridge and underpass. The scenario at city’s New Market, Farmgate, Karwan Bazar and some other areas is simply miserable.”The road spaces have been reduced due to illegal occupation of roads and road-sides by the makeshift shops and hawkers. Besides, illegal parking of vehicles is also causing traffic congestion ahead of Eid,” requesting not to be named, a high official of DMP told The New Nation on Wednesday. “At present, more than 30 per cent of road has been illegally occupied by the hawkers, salesmen and shopkeepers. The pedestrians also use roads due to lack of spacious footpaths that increase the problem of congestion. Apart from the office goers, the rush is now heavy as all types of motorized vehicles are rolling back to streets at a time. Usually, the shopping malls and other installations experience more than normal rush in this month,” he also noted.
