Despite measures from Dhaka Metropolitan Police's (DMP) traffic department, hardly any improvement is seen in Dhaka's traffic situation, which gets worse every year ahead of Eid.
Lack of parking lots, growing number of shopping malls and makeshift iftar shops are prime factors behind the traffic system's eerie fall.
Moreover, disorderly vehicle parking and ongoing construction work covering large portions of roads are also responsible for gridlocks and undue suffering of commuters.
Some commuters told the Dhaka Tribune that it takes hours to cross short distances. No one can predict how much time it takes to travel from one place to another.
"I boarded the bus at 9:00 am from Mohammadpur and reached Motijheel at 11:30 am. Usually it takes one hour," said Alex Akonodo, an official of the Sundarban Courier Service.
Khan Muhammed Razwan, Deputy Commissioner (Traffic) of Dhaka South City Corporation told the Dhaka Tribune that they had deployed an additional 300 personnel – 100 from DMP (traffic) and 200 from the community police – to control traffic during Ramadan, but they too were unable to handle such bustling traffic.
He said currently Dhaka has a population of almost 20m. More than one million automated vehicles, over one million rickshaws, and rickshaw vans ply the roads daily, hundreds of planned and unplanned buildings have been erected, but compared to that, the workforce of DMP has not been extended.
Traffic congestions are mainly caused by violation of traffic rules by commuters, illegal parking, indiscriminate u-turns, reckless driving and inadequate parking lots at shopping centres, he added.
"For example, the Bashundhara City shopping complex has a parking capacity of 1,000 vehicles, but everyday about 5,000 vehicles throng the biggest shopping centre of the country. Those not getting any space at the parking lot, park their vehicles on the roads and end up blocking almost half of it," claimed the DC.
"Hundreds of big and small shopping malls have sprung up across the city short distances from each other. Most of them lack proper parking systems," he said.
In addition, about 18 ongoing development projects in Dhaka city by different utility service providers like Dhaka Water Supply and Sewerage Authority (DWASA), Titas Gas, Bangladesh Telecommunications Company Ltd (BTCL), Dhaka Power Distribution Company (DPDC) Ltd etc add to the ever worsening gridlocks. The construction work of Jatrabari flyover is one that creates huge tailbacks at adjacent areas.
Md Jahangir Alam, Chief Engineer of Dhaka South City Corporation alleged that authorities of the running projects did not pay any heed to their repeated requests for not digging up the roads.
