Problem of too many cars

The news that only 6.0 per cent private cars take 76 per cent space of city streets should leave commuters of the capital city shell-shocked. Blaming rickshaws or other vehicles for the intractable traffic jam in Dhaka city is not going to help. Of course, to the chaotic nature of traffic all including its regulators have their share of contribution. But it is obvious that the Washington-based outfit, Democracy International, which has made a demand for limiting private cars in the capital has put the finger where it hurts. Private cars in the city have gone up at an accelerated rate. Not all car owners can be blamed for driving their private vehicles. A good number of them had no other option but to procure their cars at great pains. Behind the phenomenal growth of cars is the bitter fact of an absence of dependable public transport. Use of public transport is fraught with a host of problems.

Clearly, with more people making money will like to enjoy the independence and comfort of travelling by their private cars unless public transports guarantee improved travelling experience in the city. The number of Dhaka city's roads is limited so is their space. In a mega city where about 18 million people live, only public buses cannot carry out the transportation duty, there is need for mass transit for office-goers and others during business hours. The railway at Kamlapur is designed to serve inter-city not intra-city passengers. For long the issue of mass transit has been left unattended mostly because of lack of vision for the future. Dhaka city is bulging at its seams and it is expected to do so more. It has already become a near dysfunctional city.

To avoid a catastrophe here, even the elevated expressway will prove insufficient. Keeping the greater perspective in view, the process of administrative decentralisation has to be started from now on. Following this industrial and economic zones need to be developed in all regions in order to stop influx of people from all corners of the land. There is no point making Dhaka the only bubbling point of opportunities. Instead of concentration of opportunities and financial enterprises in the capital, those must be dispersed all around in the interest of balanced development of the country. At the same time priority has to be given to infrastructure development so that people are not compelled to rush to Dhaka for different services.

In fact, Dhaka needs to shed some of its burden now if it really has to function well. Some of the endemic problems such as water-logging and tailbacks have cast an ominous shadow on its future. So, innovative measures will have to be put in place in order to tackle these problems. A railway network -whether overhead or underground or circular -has to be built if a mega city like this has to address its inhabitants' commuting need. Both buses and private cars will prove redundant if an efficient and comfortable public transport system is available.