Traffic congestion in the capital city has taken a turn for the worse since the beginning of the month of Ramadan. Heavy gridlock is commonplace in almost all areas of the city. The situation becomes unbearable especially after the new office hours end at around 3 pm. According to a survey conducted by the passenger welfare platform, Bangladesh Jatri Kalyan Samity, 95 percent of passengers using public transport in Dhaka are suffering in the chaos of Ramadan traffic due to a change in office schedules during the month.
Buses, CNGs, rickshaws and even ride-sharing app services have greatly increased the fare leading to the suffering of daily commuters. And even after paying high amounts for transport many are unable to reach home on time for Iftar, or reach their workplace on time. This is happening despite the assurances from Dhaka Metropolitan Police (DMP) that they will take initiatives to ease traffic congestion during the month of Ramadan.
While it is easy to blame the traffic
sergeants for the traffic congestion,
in reality overpopulation and overuse
of private vehicles is a big factor
DMP traffic division deployed extra traffic police and sergeants to control traffic. To further control traffic movements auto traffic lights are now manually controlled at intersections. However, they are still unable to bring the situation under control as there are more vehicles on the roads than the capacity of the roads according to traffic police sources.
While it is easy to blame the traffic sergeants for the traffic congestion, in reality overpopulation and overuse of private vehicles is a big factor. Every day more and more newly registered private cars hit the road and the old ones are not taken off the streets either. Furthermore, as more and more people from other regions in the country shift to the capital the situation of the roads gets increasingly worse.
Decentralization as well as improvement of public transport will prove effective solutions. Another solution would be to shift the office timings so that everyone does not hit the road at the same time in the month of Ramadan. Government and non-government institutions can facilitate some employees to work from their own homes in the month of Ramadan. These steps will likely go a long way in solving our current traffic crisis.