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High price in highway

18 July 2005, 18:00 PM
LETTERS TO THE EDITOR
By Moin Dhaka
18 July 2005, 18:00 PM
On the bright and sunny morning of 08 July 2005, I was once again convinced about the perfection of my short trip to Chittagong as I was travelling back to Dhaka by road. However, my concept of perfection was short-lived in the second half of my journey from Comilla. My emotions travelled down memory lane once again after long ten years when I came across Madhaiyar Hat and found two dead bodies lying on the shoulder of our so-called Dhaka-Chittagong Highway. On attempting to see further, I could see a covered van standing on the road covering almost half the road and underneath that van stood a smashed private car. The private car which was hit from behind by another local bus went beneath the chassis of the covered van and was sandwiched in between. At the time I crossed the site of the accident, one of the bodies could still not be recovered from inside the car. I convey my heartfelt sympathy to the family of the Hon'ble State Minister Begum Selima Rahman who along with other family members were on their way for a family occasion in Comilla.

The Almighty has His prerogative to decide our fate but no one wants to accept a death which is caused as a result of our reactive malfunctioning system that only starts functioning temporarily after any adverse incident/event takes place. Who do we blame for such reckless driving? Sitting in a luxurious Volvo coach I was more surprised when the driver of the same coach started driving recklessly and no one bothered to point it out. It was a young courageous lady who was sitting next to me that reprimanded the driver for his reckless driving.

Ever since 17 June 1995, every time I drive through this Dhaka-Chittagong highway, I am reminded about the tragic death of my beloved brother who had come all the way from the USA to surprise his family before my wedding and had finally shocked us all by being a victim of death caused by a similar accident at Gouripur. This is a loss none of us can ever compensate and as such like many others, I can completely relate to the family of the deceased victims of Madhaiyar Hat.

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When do we see a highway with modern management system in between Dhaka-Chittagong which is the most important communication hub for our economy? We may not have all the amenities that a highway has to offer but the least we can expect is to support huge load of some thousand private cars, buses, trucks and container movers that ply each day by making appropriate lanes both ways. I don't know if I shall be lucky enough to see such highway as I see part of it fulfilled while traveling to Sylhet by road.

The recent much hyped-about highway patrol police about whom we have all heard and read in the newspapers, were enjoying a perfect holiday ignoring their presence on highways as their solemn duty. I don't need an answer from them but would urge them to justify if they are doing justice to the taxpayers' money. What do we have to do to increase the efficiency of our drivers who, despite having access to formal education, still manage to acquire more than one licence? Can our society think of such capacity building for our poor drivers? I see many non-governmental organisations but never saw any of them coming up with some idea on the capacity building on road sense and skills on driving for our poor drivers.

Will the government be kind enough to think it over?