Suffering and vulnerability of the city dwellers continued due to increase of chaotic condition on the city roads as the travellers have to endure gridlocks at many U-turns for hours every day.
The Dhaka city’s traffic system is regarded as one of the most disorganized ones in the world, obstructing trade, commerce and personal life as well.
The DNCC’s claim that the commuters will get effective benefits if all the U-turns are opened seems going wrong.
However, the Dhaka North City Corporation (DNCC) has been constructing 10 U-turns from Shaat Rasta to Abdullahpur to ease traffic congestion in the capital.
As part of this, on December 20 last year, the DNCC launched three U-turns in front of Tejgaon BG Press, Nabisco Junction and Banani Chairman Bari area.
However, a month after the launch of U-turns, the traffic congestion on these roads has increased instead of decreasing.
Due to the design complexity of U-turns, small cars like private cars, CNG auto-rickshaws and bikes can pass easily but big vehicles like buses or trucks cannot pass easily through U-turns. Besides, roads became narrow due to the U-turns and the suffering has increased.
People including road drivers and pedestrians said that the roads have become narrower as a result of U-turns. The vehicles are also moving slowly.
However, some people said that although the suffering of traffic jams has not been reduced, the introduction of U-turns has brought some relief to the light vehicles.
Visiting the U-turn opened at the Tejgaon BG Press area on Saturday, it was seen that small and large vehicles had to stand in the traffic jams for some time to cross the U-turn.
Ordinary pedestrians and passengers said that most of the traffic jams are occurring during office hours in the morning and in the afternoon. If all the schools are reopened, the miseries will increase.
Talking to the Bangladesh Post, Bodrul Miah, a driver of Al Mokka Transport, who was stuck at the Nabisco Junction, said that they have to bear both benefit and loss of the U-turns. When small vehicles enter the U-turns, the traffic jam is causing the passengers to be able to get on or off the bus very easily. He said that even if small vehicles like private cars can enter, there is no scope to enter the bus.
It was seen that the traffic police on duty were struggling to cope with the pressure of vehicles on both sides in Tejgaon BG Press area. Talking to the passengers of this route, it is known that this U-turn has added discomfort instead of relief.
DNCC mayor Atiqul Islam told the media during the inauguration of the U-turns that the introduction of these U-turns will further reduce traffic congestion on this road. He said if the U-turns are introduced, the sufferings of the city dwellers will be reduced to some extent.
Contacted, Khandaker Mahbub Alam, director and supervising engineer of DNCC's U-turn project, told the Bangladesh Post, “The city dwellers will get effective benefits if all the U-turns are opened. There may be some problems with partial launching of this traffic facility. All I can say that the people of the capital will enjoy the benefits of these U-turns.”
