Why megaprojects alone cannot save ‘slowest city’ Dhaka
DOT Desk: Dhaka, the bustling capital of Bangladesh, was ranked first on the list of slowest cities in the world, according to a new study that analysed traffic in over 1,200 cities in 152 countries, reports TBS.
The study titled ‘The Fast, the Slow, and the Congested: Urban Transportation in Rich and Poor Countries’ by the US-based National Bureau of Economic Research also included Mymensingh and Chattogram (9th and 12th positions) in the list of 20 slowest cities in the world.
Traffic congestion is nothing new to Dhaka dwellers. But what is frustrating is that there appears to be no easing of gridlocks in recent times, despite more and more megastructures dotting the city’s skyline. The government has poured in a lot of money into constructing the Metro Rail and Elevated Expressway to bring down the pressure of traffic. However, traffic control experts say capital-intensive projects alone cannot reduce traffic congestion and increase road speed, unless we impose discipline on the city roads. While we have surged ahead with the mega-projects, low-cost measures like bus route franchises and pedestrian-friendly footpaths still remain on the backburner. “Metro Rail and Expressway will give you comfort for a brief period of time. If you chant the slogan that there will be no traffic congestion in the city by constructing these, it means that you are inviting more people to Dhaka,” said Professor Hadiuzzaman from the Department of Civil Engineering at Bangladesh University of Engineering and Technology (Buet), adding “We are very enthusiastic about the big budget projects because it involves a lot of money.”
” If you cannot control the traffic snarls, you cannot increase the speed on the road, this is science.” He said that if we want to increase the speed on the roads, we will have to formulate some policies and implement them accordingly.
Partial implementation
The Strategic Transport Plan 2005 (STP) recommended that ramshackle buses be cleared away and the bus routes be franchised. The Revised Strategic Transport Plan 2015 (RSTP) reiterated the policy. But that has not seen much progress. As an example, Hadiuzzaman cited the Ghatarchar to Kanchpur route, where only the Nogor Paribahan buses are supposed to ply. But we see ramshackle buses also plying alongside them. “The piloting is not being implemented in a correct way,” said Hadiuzzaman, adding, “the number of buses is low and failing to meet the demand of the passengers.” He said that Metro Rail and the Elevated Expressway are STP recommended development projects. But we also need to implement the best practices in traffic control to get the benefit of such projects.
Beside capital-intensive projects, RSTP also recommends low-cost measures such as implementing bus route franchises and creating pedestrian-friendly and functional footpaths. Shamsul Hoque, Professor of civil engineering at Buet, said that if projects like Metro Rail and Elevated Expressway were implemented in conjunction with disciplinary measures, they could mitigate traffic congestion.