A photo was posted by a friend on a social media. One of the comments that followed was: “This must be photoshopped.” Of course, the comment was from someone who did not reside in Dhaka. Well, for those of us living in Dhaka, this is very familiar picture, and we are well acquainted with this kind of real life situation.
It takes hours for us to reach our destinations. We suffer insurmountable pain for travelling in and around Dhaka city. The month of Ramadan was another matter altogether, as devoted Muslims frantically tried to reach home before Iftar.
In the process, some people had to break their fast on roads and highways. Traffic jams govern our metropolitan lives. Much have been written and said about traffic jams. Newspapers and talk show participants keep showering us with their wise words, telling us how we can get rid of the traffic jam.
But who listens to whom?
The government has constructed numerous flyovers in different areas of Dhaka city, only to experience more traffic on and below the flyovers, and finally where the cars from both above and below meet on the same road.
The schools that operate in residential areas were shut down for Ramadan, meaning fewer cars moved around during particular times of the day. Even then the traffic moved at a snail’s pace during the second half of the day.
We are hearing about elevated expressways being built in the city. According to some experts, it will further deteriorate our traffic condition, but we know the plan will go on accordingly, for some people will benefit from it. Why don’t they make a plan for the traffic system, which could be done with much less amount?
A few years back, the dwellers of Dhaka were relieved during the Eid holidays, as most people left Dhaka and number of public and private transport reduced. This year, people experienced the same kind of jam from Eid evening on the main roads of the city.
The other parts of the city roads were quite empty, but strangely, no one followed any traffic signal at any junctions. So it was chaos – a competition between the cars from all sides. It was very scary to see how no one waited for anyone else for the red or the green signals. This also happens during heavy downpour and late at night. It is as if we can do whatever we like when there is no one there to stop us.
What is happening to us? Are we going backwards to the age of lawlessness? Where were the traffic police? Were they all on holiday? I looked for them everywhere, but failed to spot them anywhere. On the second day of Eid, there were some traffic police in sight, but they stood there without really making any difference to the chaotic situation of the road.
We saw how the Khulna-bound Simanto Express hit a bus and left 11 people dead, and injured 50 others. Why? Because the line man of the rail station fell asleep. Similar incidents have occurred previously also, so why haven’t we rectified ourselves?
A few years back, a man on a motorbike got stuck to the rear bumper of a car near Dhanmondi Road 27. He was dragged by the car through Mirpur Road and was killed, even though the pedestrians and other cars watched as bystanders.
The event left us flabbergasted for quite some time. The same thing was repeated recently by a microbus which dragged a young man from Shyamoli to Daressalam road almost half a kilometer, and left him dead.
Dhaka roads are filled with people, yet the microbus couldn’t be stopped. After the first incident, in 2004, the High Court had issued a directive on not using extra bumpers on private motorised vehicles which could be dangerous for pedestrians and rickshaws and bicycles.
But the use of extra bumpers is rampant in and around the country. Nobody seems to care. There was a drive to remove the bumpers right after the incident in 2004, but people seem to have forgotten about it now.
We, the city dwellers, take our lives in our hands when we get out of our houses, and pray to the Almighty that we reach our destination safely. That is all we have to depend on. May Allah bless us all.
