Improvement of traffic situation
Photo: Wahid Adnan / driknews
The communications minister made some plans to prevent traffic jams in Dhaka city. But he could not implement the plans. He declared to free the footpaths from illegal occupation of hawkers from 1st November 2010. Unfortunately, he could not start the rescue operation, the reason best known to him. Now our finance minister has decided to reduce traffic jam by imposing restrictions on private cars. Private cars with less than four or five passengers would not be allowed to ply the city streets, he said. I'm doubtful whether he will be able to impose this type of restrictions. He gave examples of Bangkok, Singapore, USA and other European countries' traffic system. We should keep in mind that we are not like one of those countries. We have to solve the problem considering our own context. We should take some pragmatic steps which will benefit us within a short period of time. The minister admitted the government's failure in controlling the traffic situation in Dhaka. My point is, failure or success comes after taking an action. But the government did not take any action at all to solve the problem. In many areas, hawkers occupy a big portion of the roads. Some hawkers sell different types of goods on rickshaw van and they easily move from one place to another creating traffic jam. In my opinion, the government can easily improve the traffic situation if it really wants to.
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