At 3 o’clock yesterday afternoon, a friend called up Sayeed and told him that he needed to rush to a hospital on Panthapath in the capital to donate blood for a surgery scheduled for half an hour later.
Sayeed, a residential student of Dhaka University, donates blood regularly. Because he has a personal vehicle, a motorbike, people often call him up as he can reach places on short notice despite the notorious Dhaka traffic.
When the call came, Sayeed, along with his bike, was standing in front of the Shahbagh police station, chatting with some university friends. As soon as he got the call, he started his bike. But that does not mean he was rushing towards Panthapath.
Traffic on the left side of the road leading from the DU campus to the Shahbagh intersection was immobile. He stood there for about 10 minutes and thinking that he would be late for the surgery, he turned his bike, took the wrong side of the road entering the road along the BSMMU Hospital. It was 3:17pm.
It took him another 20 minutes to reach the Ruposhi Bangla intersection, just 100 yards away. There, he asked an on-duty traffic sergeant why things were totally stuck in the area. The sergeant said the situation had been like that since morning and he did not know why.
An airtight tailback ahead made Sayeed decide to maneuver his way through – a skill that is common for most bikers in Dhaka. Finally, following a serpentine track through vehicles and on footpaths, dodging pedestrians, Sayeed reached the Banglamotor intersection at 4pm. He was half-an-hour late for the surgery and his friend had called him several times already.
Another 13 minutes and he finally reached the Saarc Fountain at the Karwan Bazar intersection. He took a left turn and had to move at a snail’s pace through the Basundhara City Shopping Mall traffic before finally reaching the Panthapath intersection half-an-hour later.
When Sayeed finally reached the Square Hospital on Panthapath, his wristwatch was hitting 5pm. The surgery was over by then and his friend had managed another donor somehow.
“I have come to this hospital from the campus before to donate blood but it never took me two hours, not even on regular working days. This usually takes just 30-35 minutes even on busy weekdays,” Sayeed said while talking to this correspondent in front of the hospital.
“I have my bike so I could somehow juggle my way through the static traffic. But I cannot imagine what people who travel on public transports such as buses do when things are this bad.”
While writing this story, this correspondent talked to several of his colleagues and they all reported similar experiences at different parts of the city.
When contacted, Moslehuddin Ahmed, a joint commissioner from Dhaka Metropolitan Police’s traffic control department, told the Dhaka Tribune that rain always makes things worse.
“Moreover, the Ramadan rush, especially around the big shopping malls, puts additional pressure on the traffic system. Things start going out of control after 12 noon,” said the man in charge of Dhaka’s traffic management.
AKM Shahidul Haque, inspector general of police, said: “During Ramadan, traffic problems escalate because people come from outside Dhaka for Eid shopping, sometimes by their own vehicles. But we do not have the parking space to accommodate these additional vehicles.”
While talking to reporters at the police headquarters yesterday, the police boss said: “We have already held talks with the authorities concerned and issued directives to look into the matter.”
He also said that police had been doing their level best to control the situation.