Stuck in traffic - the terrible traffic jams in Dhaka

Stuck in traffic

Faizul Khan Tanim and Musfequr Rahman explore the pain, the causes and possible long-term and short-term relief from our traffic woes


photo by Al-Emrun Garjon

Ashraf Khan, a student of Dhaka University, once went to the DU campus in the middle of the night on a private car, from his residence in Uttara.

‘It took me only 25 minutes,’ says an astonished Ashraf. Every morning, to make it to his 10am class, Ashraf starts at seven, and barely makes it on time.

If one were to look at Dhaka during various hours of the day, between 8am and 11am, 12pm, 2pm, 7pm, and starting from 7pm right up to 10:30 to 11pm on certain roads from the top of a tall building, Dhaka city is at a standstill.

‘All the roads are clogged. The cars are stuck bumper to bumper, the engines release a tremendous amount of heat, drivers honk their horns incessantly, some of the old vehicles let go black smoke, vehicles break lanes and try and enter the ones that are moving faster,’ says Ashraf.

‘On most mornings I skip classes and the ones that I do attend, I am too drained out to follow anything,’ he says.

Reaching Dhaka University from Uttara takes about the same time required to reach Tangail from Dhaka through the highways.

Travelling in Dhaka city has virtually become a nightmare.

At rush hour, a distance of three to four kilometres can take about an hour to reach. Destinations like Gulisthan, Motijheel, Old Dhaka, Maghbazar, Malibagh, Gulshan, Banani and Dhanmondi are nightmares for commuters from any point in the city. Especially frustrating are the points Hotel Sonargaon crossing, the road in front of the Prime Minister’s office, Maghbazar, Mouchak, Malibagh, Khilghaon, Rampura, Elephant Road, Science Laboratory, Green Road, Jatrabari, Sayedabad, Mohakhali and old parts of the city mainly at Dholaikhal, Postagola, Bangshal, Chowkbazar and Imamganj.

People miss important appointments, people are late for work, children and old people fall sick, not to mention the painful site that most of us choose to ignore – a blaring ambulance stuck in the middle of a traffic jam trying desperately to find a way.

The heat released from the engines, especially the private cars that use air conditioners, increase the overall temperature of the city. Continued exposure to pollution from the streets during traffic jams, will have grave consequences in the future health of these people, say experts. The economy, meanwhile, is losing out in millions because of traffic jams. Government officials estimate a loss of around Tk 15,000 crore annually because of traffic jams.

In recent weeks, the government has announced a number of steps to reduce the pressure of traffic in the city. The government plans to initiate a number of measures like informing road users from police control room through ‘traffic radio’ on the state of traffic on different road networks, installing of CCTV sets to monitor traffic movement, restricting road digging activities to night time, and ensuring schools enforce its own transport for student commuting– especially at the primary level.

Also, from September 1, the government cut down the routes on which buses can travel from 138 to 40 to ease the overall traffic in the city.

According to experts, however, these are only piecemeal measures that will not make any significant change to the traffic situation.

‘At present Dhaka has only six to seven per cent road although any major city should have 25 to 30 per cent,’ says Sayedur Rahman, deputy commissioner of Traffic Division (south) of DMP.

‘Unfortunately, around 60 per cent of the city roads are encroached by hawkers, undesignated parking, and dumping of construction materials. 30 types of motorised and non-motorised vehicles are plying on the same street, causing haphazard traffic jams,’ he says.

The real hindrance to smooth traffic as experts look at it does not lie in inadequate roads. Dhaka’s unplanned growth, a Dhaka-centric development of the country, the lack of east-west connecting roads, unplanned construction inside the city, increased number of private transports, the lack of mass transit are some of the contributory factors to traffic congestion. At the same time the poor traffic management, increasing population of rickshaws, lack of parking space, pedestrian walkways and reluctance to use of foot over-bridge make travelling on the streets difficult.

With all of this in sight, on August 28, chief adviser Dr Fakhruddin Ahmed launched the Strategic Transport Plan, a 20-year old mega-project for sustainable, safe, and environment-friendly transport and communications system encompassing Dhaka and adjacent districts of Narayanganj, Munshiganj, Narsingdi, Gazipur and Manikganj.

Under the plan, the government will construct and reconstruct 330 kilometres of roads and highways including 50 new roads, flyovers, elevated expressways, metro (underground railway), circular waterways, bus rapid transit, rapid mass transit, bus-route rationalisation, traffic system development and safe environment.

The root, stem and leaf of the problem
Contrary to popular belief, Dhaka city is a planned city. Patrick Geddes made the first plan during the British rule which was followed by the plan made by the Pakistan government in 1956 and finally the Dhaka Metropolitan Development Plan in 1990.

‘Unfortunately, because of population pressure, economic growth and mismanagement the city has outstripped the plan,’ says Dr Amanat Ullah Khan, professor of geography at Dhaka University.

According to the older plans, the Tejgaon Industrial area, the cantonment and most of the rail crossing were constructed outside the city parameters. Unfortunately, they all lie in the heart of the city, at present.

Nearly 40 per cent of city space is occupied by campuses of DU, BUET, Jagannath, Dhaka Cantonment, BDR cantonment, the courts, where public transports find very limited space, experts opine.

‘With mass transport not allowed through BUET and DU it creates excessive pressure on the adjoining roads,’ says one senior police official, ‘also, the judge court and Jagannath University has eat up the most important parts of Old Dhaka,’ he adds.

He says, that because of the location of the Press Club at Segunbagicha, a large number of processions, demonstrations start from there causing massive congestion in that busy area.

While relocating some of these establishments may not be feasible any longer, especially since the university campuses have become an integral part of city life, experts believe, that the authorities in these institutions could allow a better flow of traffic during extreme traffic scenarios and the government should develop alternate roads and flyover along these places to smoothen the flow of traffic.

While very little can be done to change the larger picture now, there are a number of smaller factors which aggravate the traffic situation in the city.

The uncoordinated road digging by Dhaka City Corporation (DCC), Dhaka Electric Supply Authority (DESA), Water and Sewerage Authority (WASA), Bangladesh Telegraph and Telephone Board (BTTB), Titas Gas and other utility service providers together make reasons for further road congestion, say experts.

The city’s numerous rail crossings and the influx of rickshaws into the capital from different places of the country with the advent of the Ramadan make road traffic stagnant, especially during this time.

Each day around 80 trains enter and exit the city, which causes six hours halt of traffic in total through each level crossing. Such types of level crossing create intolerable congestion at Magbazar, Mohakhali, Staff road, Karwan Bazar and other places.

According to the office of traffic control there are 76,000 licensed rickshaws in Dhaka though the actual figure is above 600,000. ‘An additional 100,000 rickshaws enter the city during Eid just to make additional income,’ says one senior traffic official. Moreover, every year some 30,000 new vehicles are registered. And while officially there are 160,000 motorised vehicles registered, of which 4,800 consist of buses, the unauthorised numbers of vehicles are much higher. ‘Last year, more than 60,000 motorised vehicles were added to the existing number of unregistered vehicles. Among them, nearly 50,000 were found in Dhaka alone,’ says Sayedur.

Although bus counters have been opened by many in the recent past but their unplanned establishments have resulted in the buses occupying road spaces that otherwise are essential for traffic flow. The buses stop randomly to pick up and drop passengers.

Most foot-over bridges and underpasses remain unutilised by the pedestrians reasoning dark and dodgy atmosphere inside as billboards block view from outside. Unhygienic passageways, steep stairs and pathway encroached by hawkers make it difficult to move on the bridge, say pedestrians. Although these all are true, the bottom line of the fact is that people are habituated and thus love using the shortest way by crossing over the street. Now, that it poses risk for the vehicles and create unnecessary traffic block let apart risking the pedestrians’ lives, are not their concern.

Many compressed natural gas (CNG) refuelling stations and petrol pumps are located near to the intersections that disturb the streets when large queues of vehicles break into the road. Although there is rule to set up refuelling stations having vacant spaces to accommodate thirty vehicles to wait inside the compound, it has been overlooked.

The government is to blame for the chaos when it approves universities, commercial establishments, garment factories, schools, clinics and wholesale kitchen markets at the residential areas that make life mess for those living in the community.

A lot of the plush shopping malls in the city have resulted in illegal road occupation by vehicles. Between Panthapath and Sonargaon intersection the traffic jam at anytime of the day is horrible because of the city’s biggest shopping mall constructed in the area, urban researchers allege.

And though the market offers a parking space of 1,200 vehicles, here too the people are habituated and love to park them on the street so that they can come out of the market and drive away fast without having to go down the parking space, pay for the parking ticket and look for the driver.

Officials at the traffic department believe that the fines for traffic violations are too meagre to raise fear for the violators. The red signal violation fine is only Tk 250 and illegal parking is only Tk 200.

Outside the mall and right beside the road, occupation of tea-stalls and shops make difficult for pedestrians to use the pathway.

‘We should not establish new commercial establishments in the already congested places. High-rise commercial structures should be built outside city to keep the balance, says professor Nurul Islam Nazem of the Centre for Urban Studies.

The way out
The city’s lone dependency on surface transportation system should be diversified to monorail, metro rail, and elevated expressways, Nazem believes. ‘Dhaka is turning into an “uneconomical city”,’ he says for the more time it takes for travelling now and the traffic jams increasing the cost of travelling.

Not only is the economy losing out from the increased cost of fuel but traffic jams sometimes result in deterioration of perishable goods in an existing food crisis, says a traffic official.

‘Since our traffic management system is extremely poor, the laws should be updated and monitored carefully and regularly,’ added Nazem.

‘There should be a whole “park” to educate on traffic system for the residents and children especially since one of the main reasons for road accidents and drivers not following rules is because of the abundance of fake licences,’ says Sayedur Rahman, deputy commissioner of Traffic Division (south) of DMP.

At the core of traffic congestion, development of traffic management is the need of time, says Nazem.

Experts recommend that flyovers be constructed at important intersections to reduce traffic congestion. Expressways should be introduced for passengers to cover long distances over busy routes, like from Gabtoli to Motijheel, directly without any stoppage.

Nazem recommends development of river front to bring the surrounding rivers under the transportation system. ‘If the water way can be developed, time can be saved and the pressure over the city roads could be reduced.’

Lack of east-west connecting roads is another cause of this problem so people have to use the north-southward transports more to reach locations connecting to the east-west, says Sohel Rana, assistant police commissioner of the southern traffic department. Government has planned east-west connecting roads over the Rangs Bhaban, Hatirjheel and at airport near Zia colony to ensure easy plying of vehicles.

‘Mass transit such as buses has to be drawn attention to at this point,’ recommends Sayedur. More roads should be freed from rickshaws and encroached street spaces should be recovered to expand walkways and ensure traffic flow. The inter district bus terminals have to be relocated at the city’s outskirts. ‘Most importantly, public awareness should be raised on to maintain signals, use foot over bridges more and respect traffic laws,’ he says. ‘We need proper enforcement of traffic laws.’

‘Public transport should be encouraged and once people feel that the public transportation is more effective, they would limit their use of private vehicles,’ says Dr K M Maniruzzaman, professor of the department of urban and regional planning, BUET. ‘The better thing to do is to discourage the number of commuters using single vehicle, improvement of public transportation is the only answer to discourage use of excessive private vehicles,’ he adds.

The biggest problem is actually related to our policies. Integration of public transportation routes is essential. ‘The main reason why the circular waterway failed was because of lack of integration. Suppose a commuter using the circular waterway, after he gets down from the boat, he has to have an immediate mode of transport to get in to the city. These routes should have been integrated,’ Sayedur explains.

‘The population has developed beyond its capacity but the physical capacity of the roads did not increase and secondly, to run the system, we must have effective managers with proper traffic education,’ says Amanat.

The traffic police responsible to look after the twisted mess over Dhaka’s road transportation however perform their duties without an institutional training. With the existing manpower of about 2,200 to uphold traffic discipline on the 3,000 kilometres separated between 376 points, traffic officials complain of exhaustion and frustration between them.

‘When we are investing so much to hire coaches to train our cricket team, we might as well think of hiring effective city managers, who will be like coaches and educate us on properly utilising available road space and train the city managers to run the city properly,’ Amanat added.

Commercial and academic failure ‘One of the major drawbacks in the country’s business infrastructure happens to be traffic congestion,’ says Hossain Khaled, President of the Dhaka Chamber of Commerce & Industry (DCCI).

‘We are often in dilemma when it comes to estimate the amount of time it would require to deliver a specific consignment because of traffic congestions.’

He regrets saying, that traffic congestion problem is discouraging lot of international investors. ‘I had once recommended a foreign business delegation to setup their factory at Ishwardi, because the place has effective gas supply and good communication with Dhaka. However, that group totally felt discouraged because, although it should take three and half hours to reach there without any stoppage but because of traffic jams, its completely unknown how much time it would actually require.’

Traffic congestion is not only affecting our business but the education sector as well. M Asiuzzaman, assistant professor, department of media and journalism, University of Liberal Arts, said ‘students cannot do other tasks such as photocopying or collecting notes before attending class in the morning because a lot of time gets wasted on traffic congestions. It wastes lot of working hours of students as well as teachers. In many occasions, students and teachers fail to attend classes in due time. And it is more painful when students fail to reach exam halls and fails just due to a social problem’.

The future
Recently, the government has taken up the Strategic Transport Plan (STP) to curb the existing crisis.

ABM Shahjahan, executive director of Dhaka Transport Coordination Board (DTCB) says that in Dhaka the total length of the road route is 2000 km but among them, buses are plying over only 200 km. On this 200 km route, a special and dedicated bus lane is going to be introduced to encourage mass transit.

‘On the first phase of the STP (Strategic Transport Plan), we will phase out the unfit vehicles from the DMP list. ‘Multi modal transportation’ system should be introduced immediately, not depending solely on the surface routes. Circular waterway would be introduced, which will reduce fuel consumption by 30 to 40 percent. Underground railway and elevated expressway will be introduced under STP’ he added.

Shahjahan said more that the fines for violating traffic laws during peak hours would increase from the existing Tk 200 to Tk 500.

Motor Vehicles Ordinance 1983 and Motor Vehicles Law 1984 are going to be updated and under this reform, drivers of the vehicles cannot escape his responsibility upon wrongdoing.

The major projects undertaken in the strategic transport plan (STP) are highway schemes included in phase one, within in 2005 to 2009, are from Zia Colony to Mirpur, Panthapath to Rampura (via duct road), Malibagh to Janapath and an intensive traffic management programme.

Two surveys on BRTA and bus route priority measure will be conducted also on that phase.

Highways such as Agargaon to Mirpur section 2, Bangla College to Kafrul, Gulistan to Jatrabari, Maghbazar to Mouchak, flyover and an ‘elevated expressway’, metro system design and construction will be conducted on the second phase of STP within 2010 to 2014.

And in the third phase (2015 to 2019) upgrading of 330 km regional highways, the highway between eastern bypass to Dhaka bypass, eastern by-pass, western by-pass and Dhaka link road will be conducted.

And as the government’s programmes remain on the pipeline to develop Dhaka’s traffic, experts point out that unless the focus of development is drawn outside Dhaka country’s economy is unlikely to develop, say academicians. Administration should be decentralised and Dhaka should not be the only focus of administration and development activities. The seventeen other towns of the country which formerly served as district headquarters have growth potentials but are not given much attention. If developed they can be turned into the country’s second-rank metropolises. Development in the urban areas is inevitable in order to reduce the traffic from Dhaka.