The New Nation - Internet Edition

A FRESH initiative is noted on the part of the government to improve traffic movement in Dhaka city. The Chief Adviser (CA) inaugurated a 20-year Strategic Transport Plan (STP) for Dhaka on Thursday. Prior to presiding over this function, the CA also presided over two exclusive meetings on ways and means of facilitating traffic movement. People were informed after these meetings that some urgent measures would be taken to ease traffic conditions. Recently, the traffic wing of the Dhaka Metropolitan Police (DMP) also informed about their on going activities to achieve improvement in traffic movement during the ensuing holy month of Ramadan.

But all of these initiatives notwithstanding, the ground level reality in the city is one of worse traffic jams and related agonies for the commuting public. Following the recent two exclusive meetings nothing has happened to suggest that traffic conditions are actually improving. As for the STP, none has difficulty understanding that some immediate ease in traffic movement is desperately needed. Plans like the STPs involving huge expenditure to create all sorts of infrastructures will, no doubt, involve investment and create job opportunities for builders, transport owners and operators.

However, speedy improvements can be achieved only by ensuring that the traffic police do their jobs efficiently. Letting the automatic signal lights to do the job instead of holding up traffic at intersections through manual signaling, disciplining the rickshaws to move on lanes on the sides of roads, preventing disembarkation of passengers of buses at the middle of roads instead of at the designated points and the like can be very helpful. If such measures are scrupulously enforced by the traffic policemen then traffic conditions will improve a great deal well before the establishment of expensive structures for the purpose.