The city people are yet to get rid of perennial traffic congestion in the port city due to lack of proper traffic management by the authorities concerned.
Stakeholders hold the lack of coordination among Traffic Division of Chittagong Metropolitan Police (CMP), Chittagong Development Authority (CDA) and Chittagong City Corporation responsible for the tailbacks while the authorities blame each other for the problem.
An intense traffic jam, especially during morning and evening peak hours, kills time and put a negative impact on the commuters’ work, the city people allege.
The gridlock intensifies at almost every intersection of the city especially at the CDA Avenue, Agrabad, Bahaddarhat, Mehedibagh, Saltgola, Jubilee Road, Jamal Khan, Muradpur and Oxygen.
Sources in the Traffic Division think the roads cannot accommodate the increased number of vehicles plying across the streets, and that is the main reason for the tailbacks.
Moreover, the number of roads had not increased in proportion to the rapid increase in vehicles, added the sources.
According to the Bangladesh Road Transport Authority (BRTA), Chittagong office, around 2.5 lakh vehicles plied in the city every day.
The construction works of CDA projects to widen roads take up a major portion of the roads and the slow implementation pace seemingly magnifies people’s sufferings.
These development works can be seen on most of the city streets across the city.
The unlawful parking, illegal shops set up on the streets and undesignated stops of public transport for passengers add to the problem, hampering smooth movement of vehicles.
Many commercial buildings, including restaurants, private clinics, educational institutions and shopping malls on the OR Nizam Road, CDA Avenue, Muradpur, Chawkbazar, Sheikh Mujib Road, Jamal Khan, Dampara, Zakir Hossain Road, Panchlaish and Mehedibagh have no parking facilities.
Those who come to those places park their vehicles on the roads, blocking off a lane.
Abdullah Al Noman, a private employee, said, “As I travel through the road from New Market to Karnaphuli Bridge, I have to face severe gridlock on the way. Commuting is now hazardous as I have to wait for a long time.”
“A bridge is under construction on the Syed Ashraf Ali road and so commuters have to travel through an alternative route across the Fishery Ghat area to evade traffic jam in the morning,” he said.
Towkir Mahmud, a Chittagong University student, who resides in Halishahar, said, “I often miss the university train due to traffic jam in the morning which is caused by haphazard parking of goods-laden trucks on Dhaka Trunk Road and Halishahar Road.”
The Traffic Division and Chittagong City Corporation sources said around 1.7 lakh rickshaws plied across the city streets without the CCC licences adding to the traffic congestion.
“Most rickshaws have no licence and they are causing gridlock on the city roads,” said Md Shahidur Rahman, additional commissioner (traffic, administration and finance) of CMP.
He adds that the CCC hardly takes any action to remove the illegal rickshaws.
“The plying and parking of vehicles belonging to different educational institutions are also causes of traffic jam,” he said.
Md Shahidur Rahman added that they were regularly discharging their legislative duties to keep the city roads free from traffic jam, but manpower shortage was the main obstacle to carry out the task.
Many building owners did not keep parking space even for themselves, let alone for guests, said traffic division sources.
Sarwar Uddin Ahmad, town planner of the CDA, said many citizens did not follow the building plan accurately after getting approval. Some kept a nominal parking space and some did not keep that either.
He also blamed the plying of a huge number of illegal rickshaws on the roads for traffic congestion.
CCC Mayor M Manjur Alam stressed public awareness to remove the problem.
“The CCC has a communication standing committee to monitor the sector and our magistrate is regularly conducting drives to evict illegal occupiers from the city roads,” he said, adding that the problem would be reduced within a short time.