Will Satrasta ever be freed?

Why is the DNCC allowing illegal truck parking on Annisul Huq Road?

A few days ago I travelled to Kushtia, a city situated in the southwest of Bangladesh from my hometown, Mymensingh. As our car was about to enter the city, we were faced with a huge tailback of trucks, cars, buses, and vans carrying passengers and goods.

Dhaka's traffic system is one of the most chaotic in the world. Due to the city's notorious traffic congestion, people suffer economically, physically and even psychologically.

We are hardly surprised by a new estimation by Accident Research Institute (ARI) of BUET that Dhaka's traffic congestion eats up around 5 million working hours and causes an annual loss of Tk 20,000-55,000 crore. This paints a pathetic picture of the capital's overall traffic situation.

The horrific traffic congestion that Dhaka commuters must suffer everyday has become a chronic problem.

Only a few years back, traffic congestion was rarely seen on the roads of Sylhet, but now it has become a regular phenomenon.

If you are told: Name a city where you can drive or walk as you like, the first answer would be Dhaka! Because people find their own ways to go around the city. Traffic signals change colors—from green to red to green again--but the drivers need not pay any attention to them. But even worst menaces are motorcycles zooming by on the footpaths or people darting through the speeding cars to cross the roads among the already chaotic traffic.

Dhaka North city Mayor Annisul Huq compares Dhaka’s state to that of an ailing patient in the intensive care unit of a hospital.

The sooner we realize that Dhaka's traffic congestion is not a problem of transportation engineering alone the better. This is also a problem of culture. It is much more than a result of broken bureaucracy, inadequate infrastructure, and ad-hoc planning.