Despite the city's astonishing development over the past few decades, Dhaka's traffic situation has seen no improvement within that time. If anything the traffic has gotten much worse, with it's average speed of motion being just above the average human walking speed.
But while the traffic situation has historically been an issue for the citizens of Dhaka, it is the city's walkability that has seen a steep decline over the years. One of the biggest contributing factors to this is the mushrooming numbers of illegal establishments on our footpaths.
For the longest time, footpaths in Dhaka have been occupied by illegal, small-time businesses -- such as hawkers and street vendors -- which totally block the way for citizens trying to navigate the capital by foot. Even though a number of initiatives were announced by our City Corporations, such as DNCC Mayor Atiqul Islam's eviction drives, none of them have borne any fruit.
What is stopping the administration from carrying out these drives? The answer, as always, is corruption.
These illegal roadside establishments are almost always under the protection of corrupt law enforcers and local politicians, who imbue proprietors with impunity which lead to no action being taken and the status quo being maintained.
There are far too many cases in our country where the government announces grand plans to solve a problem without any visible changes being observed. If the administration really plans on doing something about the illegal establishments occupying our footpaths, it needs to first recognize the culture of impunity that leads to these spaces being occupied.
To that end, it is somewhat encouraging to know that the High Court has recently ordered a list of names involved in this illegal practice.
An operation to clear these spaces has been a long time coming, after all, they are called “footpaths” for a reason.