Cafe Majlish, Dhanmondi
DSCC, DNCC setting up 50 new bus stops
Experts skeptical of their effectiveness in bringing discipline to Dhaka traffic
Helemul Alam
Two city corporations of Dhaka have started to set up 50 passenger-sheds at as many bus stops in the city, to bring the city's chaotic traffic under discipline.
Of them, 40 are being constructed in Dhaka South City Corporation (DSCC) areas while rest will be constructed in Dhaka North City Corporation (DNCC).
Joint commissioner (traffic-South) of DMP Mofizuddin Ahmed said they have identified 130 bus stops through a survey -- 70 in DSCC and 60 in DNCC. “We have already requested two city corporations to set up passenger sheds and to mark the designated areas,” he said.
“We have demarcated the areas at most of the 130 identified places and put up signboards, and work for rest of them are going on,” he said.
“We are going to set up 40 bus stops along with passenger sheds so that bus drivers keep their buses at designated places instead of taking and dropping passengers haphazardly,” said Rajib Khadem, executive engineer of DSCC. “We have already started construction work, and around 20 of them are in near completion stage.”
The cost of the project is around Tk 8 crore, he said.
Sub-assistant engineer of DNCC, Mohammad Mizanur Rahman, said they are constructing 10 passenger sheds and bus stops under a project of Clean Air and Sustainable Environment, eight of which have already been completed.
“We are going to put road marking, traffic signs and signposts at the bus stoppages,” said Mizanur. It will take around two weeks to complete the tender process and after that their work will start, he said.
Mizan said they could not take initiatives to set up more passenger sheds due to lack of land, but they are renovating 30 traffic police boxes at different points.
However, experts are not optimistic about the move, saying the situation cannot improve without bringing changes to the overall transport sector.
According to data of Accident Research Institute (ARI) of Bangladesh University of Engineering and Technology (Buet), 280 people were killed and 359 others sustained injuries in 267 road accidents in Dhaka in 2017. Of them, the number of pedestrians killed stood at 130 while the number of injured pedestrians was 26.
Until September of this year, Some 215 people were killed and 449 others injured in Dhaka; 85 of the deceased are pedestrians, while the number of injured pedestrians is 19.
Prof Shamsul Hoque of Buet's civil engineering department, an urban traffic expert, said bus bays and bus stops will not work if discipline in transport sector is not established. He said the initiative is good, but there is little chance of it functioning without fixing the fragmented ownership-based public transport system.
Shamsul said mass transit in Bangladesh is unorganised and problematic. At least five initiatives of setting up bus bays were taken in the last 25 years, but they all failed, he added.
Kazi Md Shifun Newaz, Assistant Professor of ARI, said drivers want to stop their buses on intersections, and passengers also want to get on a bus from there. This a major reason for indiscipline in the city's traffic, he said.
According to traffic rules, a bus must stop 100 metres away from an intersection, but they do not follow it, he said. Bus drivers also make parallel stoppages at the points, for which the space of road becomes narrower and creates traffic congestion, he added.
DMP, which is setting up and demarcating the bus stoppages in the city, will have to ensure that bus drivers stop their buses only at designated places, Shifun Newaz said, adding that passengers will also have to follow traffic rules.
Talking about the undisciplined behaviour of bus drivers, DMP Joint Commissioner Mofizuddin said they have filed many cases against the drivers who violated traffic rules, but did not get effective results so far. It will take time for the drivers to be habituated to following traffic rules, he added.
Source: Daily Star
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