Speech of the Inspector General of Police (IGP) Traffic Jam in Dhaka City: Challenges and Possible Solution January

15:2008 (12:30 pm) Mr. President- American Chamber of Commerce in Bangladesh Distinguished Guests, Ladies and Gentlemen Assalamu Alaikum and Good Afternoon Let me first take the opportunity to extend my heartfelt thanks and gratitude to American Chamber of Commerce in Bangladesh for inviting me here in this programme. Its a great pleasure and honour for me to be here to share my experiences on Traffic Jam which is one of the burning issues for Dhaka City. In my speech, I am going to highlight- important causes of traffic jam in Dhaka City, challenges we are facing to address the issue, our achievements and finally I am going to make a few recommendations. I would appreciate, if you please supplement me with your valuable and intellectual inputs at the end of the session. Reasons behind traffic jam (a) City lay-out (master plan) and over-population: The causes of traffic congestion in Dhaka city are multifarious. Starting from the city itself, it is observed that the skeleton, structure and lay-out of Dhaka City are not well-planned and welldirected. Dhaka is also a highly populated city. More than one crore people live here and the figure is increasing day by day. This huge population acts as an auto-catalyst of traffic congestion in Dhaka City. (b) Inadequate and unplanned roads: Dhaka City has very inadequate road networks. For a standard city, where the minimum road requirement is 25%, Dhaka has only 7.5% road of its total area. 30% of this 7.5% road is also occupied by the hawkers, salesman and shopkeepers. A significant portion is occupied by construction materials and waste-containers of the City Corporation. As a result, vehicles do not get sufficient space to move on. Besides this, in most cases roads are serpentine rather than being straight. This ultimately breeds a number of unnecessary junctions where vehicles automatically slow down. Again, these roads are also not well constructed and regularly repaired. City Corporation, DESA, WASA, BTTB excavate the roads randomly without any integrated and central plan. Lack of proper maintenance causes the vehicle to stop without any prior notice. During the rainy season the situation becomes more critical while the roads go under water due to heavy rain.

(c) Heterogeneous vehicles and inadequate public transport: Dhaka is a city of heterogeneous vehicles. Human puller to latest model automobile, mechanical to non-mechanical, slow to fast-moving, nothing left on the road of Dhaka. It is quite difficult to control all these vehicles on the same road as they have different speed capacity. Besides this, public transport system in Dhaka city is not adequate and properly-routed. Instead of big and spacious buses, presence of large number of minibuses and private vehicles can only contribute to carry few passengers, but not to reduction of traffic congestion. (d) Rail crossing: Everyday we are experiencing movement of 74 trains to and from Dhaka. On an average, it takes five minutes to get the clearance for each crossing. Thus in one crossing, everyday the vehicles stop for six hours that is really difficult to offset. (e) Insufficient parking arrangement and road blockage: Limited parking arrangement is another major cause of excessive traffic in Dhaka City. It has become a regular practice to park the car on road. Even during rush hours, people are seen loading and unloading their vehicles on a busy road. City transports also stop here and there without any valid reason. The three major bus stations, Sayedabad, Gabtoli and Mohakhali do not have sufficient capacity to accommodate all the buses operating from here. A recent addition to road blockage is the long queue of vehicles at CNG stations, which is really difficult to overcome. Challenges we face (a) People are not law abiding: At this stage, I am going to mention a few problems that we always face to address the traffic issues. Most important problem that we realize people are not law abiding, they do not want to follow traffic rules. Pedestrians show less interest to use footpath, foot-over-bridge or under-pass. Similarly, drivers neither try to maintain the speed nor follow the lane. In most cases, as the punishment is nominal, they tend to breach the rules again and again. (b) Inadequate logistics: Our traffic management system is not automated and well-equipped. All the junctions are not facilitated with signal lights. Where there are lights, most often those remain out of order. Moreover, uneven flow of vehicles from different directions reduces the effectivity of traffic signals. Besides, we do not have sufficient vehicles to chase a car or bus committed an accident. (b) Shortage of Manpower: We do not have sufficient and well-trained human resources. Four thousand officers work in two shifts- morning and afternoon. Due to administrative and other involvement, only fifteen hundred officers can be engaged in one shift to control the movement of millions of people and vehicles in Dhaka City. This figure is quite insufficient to manage the existing traffic scenario.

Achievements of Traffic Division Now I am going to highlight a few of our achievements. We have already made most of the important roads free from non-mechanical vehicles especially rickshaw. You can understand very well, complete withdrawal of rickshaw is a very sensitive and delicate issue. Thousands of people are living their lives by pulling rickshaws, and also this is one of the popular communication means for low and mid-level income group people. However, following the existing rules, and time to time government instructions, we have conducted several operations against illegal rickshaws and filed a number of cases. We have introduced one way vehicle movement strategy in different areas. This has given much better result. We are taking strict legal action against violators of traffic rules. Last year we filed 4 lakh 88 thousand cases and realized 16 crore 50 lakh taka as fine. We have arranged several strategic and motivational meetings with government and transport agencies and finally succeeded to control the movement of truck and other long-route vehicles. Now trucks and long-route buses can enter city only after 10 oclock at night. We have also conducted special operation against model-out vehicles and the number has reduced significantly. Removal of baby taxi is a notable example. Recommendations However, it is understandable that resolving the problem of traffic jam in Dhaka city is not possible within a short time. It needs both short-term and long-term strategies. Short-term strategies may include re-adjusting the school and office time keeping at least one hour difference, re-routing the public transport, reducing and replacing private transport with convenient and cheaper public transport, fixing different fare for rush and non-rush hour and finally keeping the foot-ways free from hawkers and shopkeepers. Long-term strategies, on the other hand, may be constructing long flyover from one end to another end of city, introducing underground rail service, undertaking coordinated and integrated strategies among different agencies working for city development, replacing rickshaws by assuring proper rehabilitation of rickshawpullers, constructing under-pass and foot-over-bridge in different important junctions and finally decentralizing the city itself. To reduce traffic congestion in Dhaka City, the most vital prerequisite that I feel, is the development of public consciousness. Unless and until we change our perception and develop a mind to abide traffic rules, whatever strategy we take, that will not work properly. I believe, our law-abiding consciousness, good-intention and sincere co-operation can remarkably reduce traffic jam in Dhaka city.

These were all from me. At this stage, I would like to invite questions from you. I believe, your participation will make the session more enjoyable and will definitely enrich my understanding and knowledge. ----- --- --Thank you very much for your intellectual response. Again, I would like to take the honour to extend my cordial thanks and appreciation to the authority of American Chamber of Commerce in Bangladesh for inviting me here in this scholarly gathering. I do believe, todays ceremony is a shiny reflection of better friendship and relationship between Bangladesh and US government. I hope and expect, in future, this relationship will bring more fruitful and beneficial results for both the countries. Finally, wish you all a happy and prosperous life. Thank you, Thank you all.

Traffic Management
Expected questions (Arguments) 1. Rickshaw -Complexities in withdrawal of rickshaw (a) Huge employment (b) Vehicles for low income and mid level income group people (c) Environment friendly (pollution free) (d) No fuel consumption recommendation (a) Withdrawal of rickshaw phase by phase (b) At present may be allowed in pocket roads 3. Deployment of Army reduces traffic Jam (e) Situation sustains for short time (f) Jam shifts from one place to another (g) Number of manpower increases 4. Cantonment -Traffic Scenario is better (a) Limited vehicles run (b) Most of the people are disciplined as they are military representative 5. Limitations -Police face (a) Manually operated (b) Not equipped with advanced technology (c) Not well trained human resources (d) Most cases Constable does not have arresting power (Sergeant required) (e) Nominal fine (f) (f) do not have vehicles to chase car or buses 6. Achievements of traffic division (a) (b) (c) (d) (e) Roads are free from human puller One way roads Controlled movement of trucks and long-route buses Cases filed 4 lakh 88 thousand (Year 2007) Revenue earned 16 crore 50 lakh ( Year 2007 )

7. Areas to emphasize We need integrated and holistic approach (a) Traffic Education (for mass people) (b) Traffic Engineering (infrastructure) (c) Traffic Enforcement (by police) (d) Traffic Environment (participation of all) 8. Punishment given 300 officers (2007)