Editorial
Long tailbacks on highways
Urgent remedy needed
ROAD travel has of late become the most painful experience and that our highways and traffic management and vehicle control on them remain much to be desired. Looking at the unmitigated sufferings of the road travelers the last two days has all the more reinforced that fact.
There is no reason for the communications minister to feel contended with road repairs only, and we know him as person who spends as much time outside ensuring that the conditions of the roads were up to scratch, as he does in his office. But he should much rather plan the expansion of the existing highways particularly those that connect the capital with the divisional headquarters. If not, the situation will get even worse and a journey which a decade ago took only four hours but takes double the time now under normal circumstances and six fold on religious holidays, as we saw this time, will take even longer.
We feel that a thorough evaluation of the reasons for the jam, seventy kilometers in some places on the major highways, is called for. Yesterdays lead article in the leading Bangla daily enumerates six reasons for this, which can all be cured quickly. But what will remain the biggest problem is the road capacity which has been so severely overtaken by the huge number of vehicles on the highways. Unless work is initiated immediately to expand the major highways, which are no more than single-way roads, to four-way lanes, the sufferings of the travelers will continue.
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