We need a walkable city, not just grand infrastructures

An estimated Tk 50 to 60 lakh is extorted monthly from street vendors at Mirpur-10 roundabout and adjoining places, and the control over the easy money sometimes leads to clashes among the beneficiaries.

A photo published in this newspaper last Monday is a perfect example of how good initiatives, when conduced without proper planning or implementation, end up achieving nothing. In order to prevent bikers from using the pavements recently built by the DNCC, which include a special lane dedicated for the visually impaired, the Dhaka Metropolitan Police has set up concrete pillars on them on both sides of Kazi Nazrul Islam Avenue.

Tuesday's mayhem in Narayanganj was all about money.

In a country where corrupt practices dominate traffic rules and laws, the Bangladesh Road Transport Authority (BRTA) has prepared a draft law under which police would not require any warrant to arrest anyone for violation of traffic rules. Police lodge around 70,000 cases a month and there is a huge backlog of cases. Will this new law, if passed, help the situation?

Dhaka North City Corporation Mayor Annisul Huq yesterday asked grabbers to free city footpaths by March 1.

Rajuk has launched simultaneous drives in various parts of the city to reclaim footpaths, parking spaces that were being used for other purposes.

Hawkers will be allowed to sit on footpaths at Gulistan in Dhaka without giving any toll from now, Dhaka South City Corporation (DSCC) Mayor Sayeed Khokon said today.

Pedestrians face disruption while walking through the footpaths in Dhaka. Many footpaths of the city, which is one of the populated cities in the world, are seen full of vendors and makeshift shops.

Despite several marked improvements in the public health sector, authorities are yet to make public hospitals to host a warm welcome to the commoners.