The New Nation - Internet Edition

Mamunur Rashid

At least 40 per cent of city's footpath is occupied by building materials of Real Estate Companies and street-hawkers. The occupiers are allegedly paying tolls to police, BRTA and DCC employees for smooth running of their business.

Most of the footpaths, under the control of the local musclemen, are being rented to Iftar item sellers and hawkers rushing to the capital for Eid business seven days ahead of Ramzan.

According to Strategic Transport Planning (STP) report Dhaka Metropolitan City has around 388 km of footpaths for smooth movement of city dwellers but hawkers and real estate developers have occupied around 155 km of the footpaths, the report said.

As most of the footpaths are under occupation, it is very difficult for the pedestrians to use them. Sometimes they are forced to step on to the main road for passing that area. As a result, many of them meet tragic end to their lives under the wheels of speeding buses or other heavy vehicles.

Those eager to protect their precious lives pass through the hawkers' occupied pavements or footpaths only to become the victims of pickpocket or other petty criminals. Apart from these, the pedestrians also receive injuries, as the construction materials including rods, bricks and other materials are stacked on the footpaths and roadside indiscriminately.

When asked about the irregularities on the footpaths, an official of the Estate Department of DCC said, "We are not authorised to monitor these irregularities. We just evict unauthorised occupants, demolish illegal structures and business establishments from the footpaths on the basis of our zonal office reports. Special teams of engineering department of the BRTA are responsible for taking steps against these issues," he added.

Earlier, Rajdhani Unnayan Kartripaksha (RAJUK) and Dhaka City Corporation (DCC) with the help of different law enforcing agencies launched a massive drive to evict the hawkers, vendors and demolished the illegal structures and business establishments in order to reduce traffic jam and ensure smooth movement of pedestrians.

With the conclusion of the drive, hawkers have reoccupied a major part of the city's footpaths while contractors and traders continue to store building materials on the pavements illegally. The city footpaths remain full with buyers and sellers throughout the day. The city dwellers cannot reach their destination in time.

Visiting some areas, this correspondent found that the footpaths of Motijheel, Baitul Mokarrum, Gulistan, Paltan, Newmarket, Nilkhet, Dhaka College Gate, Farmgate, Science Laboratory Crossing and Mirpur-10 areas have turned into sprawling markets displaying different daily necessities like vegetables, fruits, garments and spices ahead of the holy month of Ramzan.

Four underpasses have been constructed at Gabtoli inter-district bus terminal, Karwan Bazar, Gulistan and Jatrabari for ensuring the smooth movement of pedestrians. But all these have become dens of cheats, snatchers, drug peddlers and drug addicts. At night all sorts of anti social activities are carried out in these places.

Senior officials of Detective Branch of Police said as per the directives of higher authority, a huge number of law enforcers from different law enforcement agencies will be deployed in and around the capital to combat the unlawful activities during the holy month.