Redesigning the rickshaw
I am gratified that at last I have got a response and from a lady foreigner at that, to the 69 letters I have written on the subject over the last 2 years and 9 months. My grateful thanks to Angela Robinson for backing me up and for the many entertaining and informative letters from her that have appeared in DS in the recent past!
Not in the least was her appeal to car-owners some time ago not to use a hosepipe to wash their cars. When nearly 50% of Dhaka's population is deprived of clean drinking water, it is a piteous sight every Friday morning when I walk from Niketon to Gulshan-1 market, to see on the way, dozens of cars being washed with hose-pipes which run free to flood the roads while the Gas Guzzling Monstrosities (GGMs) are being wiped clean or the cleaners just idly gossiping. I berate them endlessly to desist, which has undoubtedly earned me the sobriquet of “that old crack-pot”. Could someone calculate how much clean water is thus wasted and all this is to no purpose anyway because minutes after they drive on the un-cleaned roads of Dhaka, the GGMs are coated with dust.
While 'congratulating' motor vehicle owners for the formal inauguration of the Gulistan-Jatrabari Flyover (a lollipop), I would ask them, will this be a panacea for traffic jams in Dhaka? Will I be able to go from Gulshan to AirportUttara-Ashulia in less than 30 minutes? How many such flyovers do we actually need? When will these become a reality? Traffic jams and the resultant deafening horns are still very much a part of life, in spite of all the expensive colourful electronic gadgets installed.
I will go on repeating that traffic jams in Dhaka can be a thing of the past if the existing traffic laws are up-dated and rigorously implemented and enforced. But then where will our controlling authorities get the will and the courage to book even a junior minister, MP, bureaucrat or one of the nouveau riche who as we have seen, can upbraid ministers publicly and get away with it.
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