The New Nation - Internet Edition

UNAUTHORISED parking of vehicles have taken away the serenity and traffic discipline from Dhaka City. The menace is there in shopping centres, offices, residential and mixed areas, and particularly in the Motijheel downtown. Several hundred thousand man-hours are wasted every day in the city due to traffic congestion which is caused, among others, by unauthorised and reckless parking. Dhaka is certainly the singular metropolis in the world where such caprice is common.

The Motijheel Commercial Area was developed since the 1950s when Dhaka was the new capital of a province where volume of business was small and the number of vehicles limited. At that time any or no arrangement of vehicle parking was enough. But as time went on business spread and the number of vehicles phenomenally increased. In only a quarter century Dhaka turned into a national capital with immense possibilities. This has, in turn, necessitated many more amenities needed for a metropolis where nearly 11 million people now live. Though the scruple of the early builders of the private and public edifices are not praiseworthy the outcome of their endeavours now need to be reshuffled in a way which can meet the present-day need.

The entire need cannot be met at a stroke. It has not been fully possible even in Tokyo, New York or London. At peak hours those highly planned mammoth cities also become naughtily congested. But those cities for busy hours have different kinds of traffic rules and management. Here, in Dhaka also on week days during busy hours traffic management and traffic rules shall have to be different from those of lean hours. Often some such measures are taken but they are short-lived and irregular. As redressive measures private and public buildings now need to turn their ground floors into car parks.