Bus routes controlled through authority will improve traffic

Transport specialists have suggested controlling bus routes through authority to bring back discipline in public sector transport and ease traffic jams in Dhaka.

 

Such a plan is regarded with positivity by the committee while urban specialists have said that an authority is needed.

The authority has to be made of professional people and the government must implement existing laws, opined urban specialists.

Urban specialists have said that the committees formed to create coordination between bus route regularisation and service providers do not give the mayor any power.

Once these committees are transformed into authoritative bodies, laws will be implemented, they feel.

Former president of the Bangladesh Architecture Institute and Urban Planner Mobasher Hossain, said, “We do not know about the power of the committee, there’s no point in having committees which are ineffective.”

The local government ministry has issued a notification on Sept 9 last to bring back discipline to the city’s roads. A ten member committee has been formed with Dhaka South City Corporation, DSCC mayor Sayeed Khokon. The gazette of the committee underlined several duties, bur routes, change in bus operation, bus route rationalisation etc.

Transport specialists say that the main reasons for jams in the city are too many cars and rickshaws. In addition, scarcity of roads, route permits without coordination, plying of unfit cars, reckless sparking contribute to jams.

The unwillingness to use foot over bridges is also another reason for traffic congestion.

Mayor of DSCC, Sayeed Khokon, told Bangla Tribune, “We are working in this regard and trying to bring in authority.”

Secretary General of Bangladesh Road, Transport Owners Association, Khondokar Enayetullah, told Bangla Tribune, “Controlling through authority is welcome because an authority is bound by responsibility.”   

Dr Shamsul Huq of Bangladesh University of Engineering and Technology, BUET, told Bangla Tribune, “We have a Strategic Transport Plan, STP, but all over the world there is an independent committee to look after it and that’s what we need to form first.”