No room for New Vehicles

[auto_freak]

The number of vehicles is around seven times the capacity of the roads in the capital.
In last six years, the volume of motorised and non-motorised vehicles has almost doubled, while the city has seen only two new thoroughfares--Doyaganj-Jurain and Bijoy Sarani-Agargaon--built during the period, said officials involved in traffic management.


With 250-300 kilometres of roads, Dhaka has room for around 1.5 lakh vehicles, but it has to accommodate some 11 lakh motorised and non-motorised vehicles, they added.
Tapan Kumar Sarkar, director of Bangladesh Road Transport Authority, told The Daily Star that currently at least 5.24 lakh motorised vehicles ply the city streets every day, while it was 3.03 lakh in 2003.
Around 2.21 lakh new vehicles hit the road in last six years. On average, 180 new vehicles including motorbikes step onto the city streets every day, Sarkar added.


Sources in Dhaka Metropolitan Police said the number of non-motorised vehicles in the capital is over five lakh. It was 3.5 lakh in 1992.
In 1992, there used to be 246.49 vehicles on every kilometre of the city roads. That number at present is around 500 vehicles per km.
DMP Joint Commissioner Shafiqur Rahman told The Daily Star that a mega city like Dhaka should have 25 percent of its total area dedicated to roads.
But in reality, only 8 percent of its area is claimed by roads, and 3 percent of that is meant for public transport and heavy vehicles.
Of the total city size, 45 percent is occupied by residential establishments, 15 percent by mills, factories and shopping malls, 20 percent by administrative and academic establishments and 12 percent is used for other purposes.


To make things even worse, there is the shortage of traffic personnel.
Metropolitan police officials said only 730 people have been recruited to DMP (traffic) in last six years.
In 2003, 2,265 DMP personnel used to handle 6.53 lakh vehicles, and now 2,995 have to control around 11 lakh vehicles.
DMP (traffic) was first divided into two zones in 2000 and into four zones in 2006.
Besides manpower shortage, it faces an acute crisis of transport. Its transport pool has only nine vehicles. It has to rely on requisitioned vehicles for use by its personnel, added the officials.


ABM Shahjahan, former executive director of Dhaka Transport Co-ordination Board (DTCB), said the authorities concerned should encourage people to lessen the use of private cars and commute more on public transport like double-deckers or buses.
By slapping heavy peak-hour charge on private cars, the authorities can discourage unnecessary use of those.
Besides, he added, minibuses, human haulers and similar modes of transport should be removed from the city streets.


Joint Commissioner Shafiqur Rahman said eight government and semi-autonomous bodies including DCC, DMP and BRTA have a role to play in controlling and managing vehicles and their movement in the city, but they seem to have left street management on traffic police alone.
Dhaka City Corporation issues licence for rickshaws but it does little in seizing illegal rickshaws. Similarly, BRTA hardly identifies or seizes illegal vehicles or drivers with fake licences.
DMP Commissioner AKM Shahidul Hoque said lack of co-ordination between the stakeholders has worsened the traffic situation.

[naaik]

First reaction: WHAT THE CRAP!

[zahin91evo]

Importing/registration stopped?

[Devil_Inside69]

thts a horrible news indeed...we really shud do somthing about it.......and GOVT shud also try their best to build wider roads.....

[Uncle Bobby B]

OMG, 2 NEW ROADS since 1990 :O

[Farde3n]

According to this, 5400 new cars are arriving every month, or almost sixty five thousand cars a year! And that's WITHOUT counting in the rest of BD! O_O

[B16A]

stopping car import by imposing tax that's same as extortion is not the solution! the govt should build more roads by taking over land/buildings. Ershad made panthapath this way. just think about the situation if panthapath did not exist.

govt is saying that over 20 yrs old vehicles may not be on the streets. for ppl with such cars, will they be compensated in any way? i dont think so! but if the govt takes over land/buildings for making roads, then govt compensates the owner. why is it that in bangladesh owning a car is like a major crime? only criminals own cars? is that what the govt thinks? for most ppl with cars, they can choose to migrate to other countries too! it is the govt's failure that they cannot provide enough means for its own ppl to spend their money in their own country.

lastly, what about the excessive amount of buses on the roads? just because most of the bus companies are owned partially or fully by (ex)MPs, they are allowed to be on the road. except for peak time, you can always see atleast 4-5 empty buses lined up in the bus stops with no passenger. still they are parking parallel creating traffic, then killing ppl on the roads to go to the next stop before the others - thats not a problem because thats not a car. only ppl who evade tax buys cars - buses and other vehicles are always owned by tax-paying law-abiding citizens....what a bunch of crap!!!

what about the other causes for traffic jam? all the trains start from kamalapur or arrive at kamalapur mostly during peak time. when one train passes through the city, think about how many rail gates are dropped (atleast 10 from kamalapur to dhaka gate).....doesnt that cause traffic jam? y dont they re-route the tracks outside of dhaka? what about most of the traffic signals not working and those dumbass, up to 8th-grade educated traffic polices holding a signal for up to 10-15 minutes? doesnt that cause traffic jam? even in New York, where they have probably one of the densest traffic in the world, there is no signal more that 2-3 minutes. our law-makers have tons of black money that they used to travel abroad with their family....didnt they see and learn anything even there?

[Farde3n]

stopping car import by imposing tax that's same as extortion is not the solution! the govt should build more roads by taking over land/buildings. Ershad made panthapath this way. just think about the situation if panthapath did not exist.

govt is saying that over 20 yrs old vehicles may not be on the streets. for ppl with such cars, will they be compensated in any way? i dont think so! but if the govt takes over land/buildings for making roads, then govt compensates the owner. why is it that in bangladesh owning a car is like a major crime? only criminals own cars? is that what the govt thinks? for most ppl with cars, they can choose to migrate to other countries too! it is the govt's failure that they cannot provide enough means for its own ppl to spend their money in their own country.

lastly, what about the excessive amount of buses on the roads? just because most of the bus companies are owned partially or fully by (ex)MPs, they are allowed to be on the road. except for peak time, you can always see atleast 4-5 empty buses lined up in the bus stops with no passenger. still they are parking parallel creating traffic, then killing ppl on the roads to go to the next stop before the others - thats not a problem because thats not a car. only ppl who evade tax buys cars - buses and other vehicles are always owned by tax-paying law-abiding citizens....what a bunch of crap!!!

what about the other causes for traffic jam? all the trains start from kamalapur or arrive at kamalapur mostly during peak time. when one train passes through the city, think about how many rail gates are dropped (atleast 10 from kamalapur to dhaka gate).....doesnt that cause traffic jam? y dont they re-route the tracks outside of dhaka? what about most of the traffic signals not working and those dumbass, up to 8th-grade educated traffic polices holding a signal for up to 10-15 minutes? doesnt that cause traffic jam? even in New York, where they have probably one of the densest traffic in the world, there is no signal more that 2-3 minutes. our law-makers have tons of black money that they used to travel abroad with their family....didnt they see and learn anything even there?

I agree with each and every single point you made over there, Salman bhai...it really does appear as if people become criminals merely by owning a car!

If they DO decide to ban twenty year old vehicles, what am I gonna do with my EE90? I seriously hope they never introduce such idiotic measures...

[naaik]

stopping car import by imposing tax that's same as extortion is not the solution! the govt should build more roads by taking over land/buildings. Ershad made panthapath this way. just think about the situation if panthapath did not exist.

govt is saying that over 20 yrs old vehicles may not be on the streets. for ppl with such cars, will they be compensated in any way? i dont think so! but if the govt takes over land/buildings for making roads, then govt compensates the owner. why is it that in bangladesh owning a car is like a major crime? only criminals own cars? is that what the govt thinks? for most ppl with cars, they can choose to migrate to other countries too! it is the govt's failure that they cannot provide enough means for its own ppl to spend their money in their own country.

lastly, what about the excessive amount of buses on the roads? just because most of the bus companies are owned partially or fully by (ex)MPs, they are allowed to be on the road. except for peak time, you can always see atleast 4-5 empty buses lined up in the bus stops with no passenger. still they are parking parallel creating traffic, then killing ppl on the roads to go to the next stop before the others - thats not a problem because thats not a car. only ppl who evade tax buys cars - buses and other vehicles are always owned by tax-paying law-abiding citizens....what a bunch of crap!!!

what about the other causes for traffic jam? all the trains start from kamalapur or arrive at kamalapur mostly during peak time. when one train passes through the city, think about how many rail gates are dropped (atleast 10 from kamalapur to dhaka gate).....doesnt that cause traffic jam? y dont they re-route the tracks outside of dhaka? what about most of the traffic signals not working and those dumbass, up to 8th-grade educated traffic polices holding a signal for up to 10-15 minutes? doesnt that cause traffic jam? even in New York, where they have probably one of the densest traffic in the world, there is no signal more that 2-3 minutes. our law-makers have tons of black money that they used to travel abroad with their family....didnt they see and learn anything even there?

WORD! Agreed with every single line.

[JZ_ReV]

stopping car import by imposing tax that's same as extortion is not the solution! the govt should build more roads by taking over land/buildings. Ershad made panthapath this way. just think about the situation if panthapath did not exist.

govt is saying that over 20 yrs old vehicles may not be on the streets. for ppl with such cars, will they be compensated in any way? i dont think so! but if the govt takes over land/buildings for making roads, then govt compensates the owner. why is it that in bangladesh owning a car is like a major crime? only criminals own cars? is that what the govt thinks? for most ppl with cars, they can choose to migrate to other countries too! it is the govt's failure that they cannot provide enough means for its own ppl to spend their money in their own country.

lastly, what about the excessive amount of buses on the roads? just because most of the bus companies are owned partially or fully by (ex)MPs, they are allowed to be on the road. except for peak time, you can always see atleast 4-5 empty buses lined up in the bus stops with no passenger. still they are parking parallel creating traffic, then killing ppl on the roads to go to the next stop before the others - thats not a problem because thats not a car. only ppl who evade tax buys cars - buses and other vehicles are always owned by tax-paying law-abiding citizens....what a bunch of crap!!!

what about the other causes for traffic jam? all the trains start from kamalapur or arrive at kamalapur mostly during peak time. when one train passes through the city, think about how many rail gates are dropped (atleast 10 from kamalapur to dhaka gate).....doesnt that cause traffic jam? y dont they re-route the tracks outside of dhaka? what about most of the traffic signals not working and those dumbass, up to 8th-grade educated traffic polices holding a signal for up to 10-15 minutes? doesnt that cause traffic jam? even in New York, where they have probably one of the densest traffic in the world, there is no signal more that 2-3 minutes. our law-makers have tons of black money that they used to travel abroad with their family....didnt they see and learn anything even there?

agreed totally. this cannot be an ultimate plan of contingency.