No parking, pickups of long-haul buses at Dhaka roadsides

The Dhaka Transport Coordination Authority (DTCA) has taken an initiative to deter buses from parking on the roads in front of the three long-distance bus terminals and picking up passengers from there.

The organisation has already sent letters to the Bangladesh Road Transport Authority (BRTA), Highway Police, traffic police and two city corporations of Dhaka to stop such activities.

Sources at Dhaka Metropolitan Police’s Traffic Division said they will take steps to halt such illegal activities next week.

The DTCA letter to different organisations said inter-district or long-distance buses are often parked on the roads in front of Gabtoli, Mohakhali and Sayedabad bus terminals.

Apart from this, these buses stop at the roads and places adjacent to the terminals, such as Gulshan Link Road to Mohakhali, Aminbazar Bridge to Gabtoli, Mazar Road to Technical Mor, Jatrabari, Janapath Mor, and Atish Dipankar Road to Sayedabad, and take passengers aboard or drop them.

These bus companies have even set up ticket counters by occupying the footpaths in these areas which is completely illegal. Parking or stopping vehicles within 30 meters (about 100 feet) of an intersection narrows the road at the intersection and consequently disrupts traffic. So, the authorities concerned were asked to stop such malpractices.

Dhrubo Alam, project director of DTCA’s Preparation of Concept Design and Implementation Plan for Bus Route Rationalisation and Company-based Operation of Bus Service in Dhaka project, said, “The bus route rationalisation committee took an initiative to ensure that no bus can pick up passengers at the counters outside the terminals. It is illegal. We want no such illegal counters anywhere. Passengers will arrive at the terminal, buy tickets and leave.

“All the long-distance bus owners bring their vehicles into Dhaka and keep them here. Bus owners have turned the terminals into their private parking spaces, but their vehicles cannot be kept at the terminal all day. A bus has to come to the terminal, stop for a certain time and leave again.”

Visiting the three bus terminals, it was found that long-distance buses were parked in rows in front of them. Buses were coming one after another, parked on the main road and picked up passengers, causing long tailbacks. The worst situation was in Sayedabad and Mohakhali areas, where bus counters have been set up on roadsides.

Buses stand in three or four queues in front of the Mohakhali terminal. As a result, the road in front of it remains almost closed, creating a traffic jam from Satrasta to Mohakhali and Banani.

Shubhankar Ghosh Rakesh, general secretary of the Bus-Truck Owners Association and managing director of Shyamoli NR Travels, said, “There is a shortage of space in the terminals compared to the current number of vehicles. As a result, long-distance vehicles have to park on the roads. If you can provide space, everything can be done inside the terminals. If the government creates such a facility, we will go there.”

Sector insiders said if a bus is parked on the road, the police can file a case against its owner. The city corporation can decide how long a bus can stay at the terminal. The BRTA can also conduct drives in this regard. However, no authorities concerned so far have done anything effective to resolve the crisis.

SK Md Mahbub-E-Rabbani, director of Road Safety at BRTA, said, “If such illegal activities continue at the terminals, BRTA’s mobile courts will conduct drives as per the Road Transport Act. Apart from this, we will inform the organisations of bus owners and labourers of the respective terminals through letters to stop such activities.”

Khandaker Nazmul Hasan, additional commissioner (traffic) of the Dhaka Metropolitan Police, said, “We have held a meeting with the bus owners’ association. They have been instructed to pick up passengers from inside the terminal, close the gate and leave. We have also told them where the bus can stop, but the owners’ association is not following it. We will sit with the owners’ association next Saturday and give them one last warning. If they don’t comply then we will take legal action.”

When the officials of the two city corporations were contacted for comments on these issues, none of them agreed to talk to this correspondent.

Transport expert Md Hadiuzzaman, a professor at the Bangladesh University of Engineering and Technology (BUET), said, “For a permanent solution to this problem, the terminals should be moved outside the city. For this, it is necessary to develop places where passengers can reach by public transport. There will be no solution just by sending letters.”

BUET’s recommendations for getting rid of tailbacks

Dhaka’s traffic congestion has increased heavily in recent times. To reduce it and find a solution, Chief Adviser Prof Muhammad Yunus held a meeting with top officials of the Dhaka Metropolitan Police and experts from the BUET on 16 September, said sources.

The BUET experts have specially mentioned a short-term plan for decreasing traffic congestion.

Prof Md Hadiuzzaman, who participated in the meeting with the chief adviser, said, “A number of recommendations have been made to control the traffic congestion for the time being. One of the recommendations was banning illegal vehicles on main roads. They should ply on feeder roads. Besides, traffic signals should be activated. The signals cannot be held for long. They should be operated according to importance.

“Also, buses cannot be stopped haphazardly. They must stop at the appropriate stops or bus bays. One bus will come and stop following another. A bus cannot be parked diagonally next to another bus. Mobile traffic police teams should be created in eight divisions of traffic police. There should also be traffic engineers who will monitor the situation all the time and disentangle traffic jams immediately.”

If the traffic police implement these measures, the situation may improve a little. However, it is not possible to get rid of traffic congestion overnight, said Prof Hadiuzzaman.