When the average speed of a city’s traffic hovers close to the average walking speed, it spells trouble for everyone on multiple fronts. Not only does it result in frustrated citizens but the speed of a city’s traffic has a direct impact on its economy, which is especially bad news for a nation such as ours -- one that has fairly high economic aspirations.
For years, our administration has been strategizing potential solutions to the traffic problem, but not much has been seen in terms of concrete results. Of course, ambitious infrastructural projects like the Metro Rail Project are in the pipeline, but even so, there are questions among the public as to what will truly happen to the city once the project is completed.
So, what makes Rajuk’s newest plan to ease Dhaka’s traffic congestion so different? It’s uniqueness for one thing.
In connecting Hatirjheel and the Gulshan-Banani-Baridhara lake, Rajuk’s plan involves water-buses plying across the route and transporting citizens from one end to the other. Coupled with plans for a circular road along the lakes, one can see the promise this plan holds, especially given how Gulshan avenue is one of the most consistently traffic-ridden roads in the entirety of Dhaka City.
But, of course, we have heard of such promising plans before.
The Metro Rail Project has long been touted as the de facto project that would improve Dhaka’s traffic situation, and, despite the progress, the project has been mired in issues that stem from the usual corruption and needless bureaucracy that has stalled progress every which way.
At the end of the day, the most effective way to ease pressure off our capital city is still the prompt decentralization of our economy. But until that happens, we need to ensure that promising plans such as these don’t get bogged down by administrative failings.
