The system of the entire roads is in a state of disarray, still causing fatal accidents almost every day in the capital under the very nose of the authority concerned.
Violation of traffic rules, including reckless driving, illegal parking and movement of illegal vehicles, has again become normal and even increased, experts observed.
City service buses are seen in fierce competition as both owners and drivers are trying to make up their losses they incurred during the lockdown, experts added.
On city roads, the number of smaller vehicles, especially motorcycles and rickshaws, has increased after the lockdown, they added.
Earlier, the traffic department of the Dhaka Metropolitan Police (DMP) had launched a 'video case' to bring order to the roads. But now those activities of the police have stopped. As a result, car parking is going on everywhere as before. Vehicles are moving in the opposite direction. This is creating chaos on the road as before.
However, DMP officials said that such cases have been closed since last April due to coronavirus. Video case will be resumed soon. But no one has been able to say exactly when it will be launched.
According to the traffic department sources, the video case has officially started from June 2016. As part of the case, DMP traffic department sergeants monitored the movement of vehicles in case of illegal parking, reversing or violating traffic laws. The fine letter was delivered to the owner's address even if it could not say anything immediately. The news of that case would also go to the BRTA server. Fitness clearance was stopped if the driver or owner did not pay the fine. Such activities are called 'video cases' by the traffic department of the police.
The proceedings in this case were in four traffic divisions of DMP (Dhaka Metropolitan North, South, East and West). However, at this time in the corona, the proceedings of the case are going on in a manual manner.
According to sources in the DMP's traffic department, there used to be an average of 250 'video cases' per month in the city. There was a lot of response from the citizens because of this case.
However, the application of this case was more in the traffic west and north. Certain sergeants were on regular visits for this purpose. They were specially trained and provided with separate cameras to take videos or pictures.
When asked, Basu Dev Banik, joint commissioner of the DMP's traffic department (south), said that as a result of the video case, car parking in the city was greatly reduced. Now these activities are closed unannounced. The higher authorities will be informed to launch it soon.
Transport expert and former director of the Accident Research Institute (ARI) at Buet, Professor Shamsul Hoque, opined that the government has failed to ensure road safety in the country.
"The chaos on roads has been increasing gradually in recent times rather than decreasing. The new law could not be implemented yet due to a lack of proper planning," he said.
"Reckless driving and charging extra fares are still going on. Public transports do not follow the law. Every road is a death trap now," he added.
However, it is learned that from January to August this year 2,852 people were killed in 2,604 road accidents, while 3,971 people died from 3,702 road crashes during the same period last year, according to Jatri Kalyan Samity, an organisation working towards ensuring the welfare of passengers.
Although public transportation systems were closed for more than two months during the general holidays over the Covid-19 pandemic and the number of vehicles on the roads was lower than in normal times since the holidays ended, the deaths caused by road accidents have not decreased significantly.
Organisations working on road safety and passengers' rights have opined that reckless driving, overtaking, faults in road design, unfit vehicles, unskilled drivers, lack of awareness on the part of passengers and pedestrians, use of mobile phones or headphones while driving vehicles, drunk driving, occupied footpaths and poor enforcement of the law are the principal causes behind chaotic roads.
