Traffic Problem in Bangladesh

Daily traffic of the capital city

The traffic problem in Bangladesh especially in the capital Dhaka has become so acute that now Dhaka is called the capital of traffic. From 7 in the morning till 11 at night the roads are packed with vehicles. It does not spare even the rich people. The people sitting on the back seat of their air-conditioned cars become patient less and the poor outside take in all the harmful gases coming from the vehicles. The way the population of the city has grown and still growing it is ranked as world’s 20th most populated city. Being such a small country the population is way big for the country to hold properly. There are about 650 major intersections in the capital, but only 60 traffic lights. Every big roads and intersections have traffic polices. When one looks at first it will look as if the traffic polices are trying to enforce traffic rules, but in reality they are actually directing the traffic nothing else. If we convert the cost of traffic congestion in to money value it will be $3.8 billion, and it does not even include the less tangible losses.  Also due to this traffic Dhaka losses more than 8 million work hours each day. All the vehicles are stopped on the roads for average 6 hours a day, standing there being useless, unproductive, killing time and efficiency. Despite of this major problem 37,000 new cars are being added every year. There are many reasons behind this problem. At first other cities being not so developed people have a tendency to gather in the capital. Most of the roads do not have any lanes, and the ones have it drivers do not tend to maintain that. All sorts of vehicle run on the roads together. Where fast vehicles like cars, buses run at the same time slow vehicles like CNG, rickshaws are also running.

Rickshaws of Bangladesh

Rickshaws are the slowest vehicle Bangladesh has and they are mostly blamed for the traffic. Rickshaws are the main mean of transportation for the lower and lower middle class people and students. Being an interesting mean of transportation it is also popular among all sorts and classes of people. There are about one a half million people who drive rickshaw and few hundreds and thousands who work to repair them. Rickshaws can be replaced by more busses and CNGs but it will cause a major unemployment problem. There are plenty of busses but most of them have no fixed rate and proper license. Another big transportation problem is the train system of the country. Too many small amount of trains compared to too much of population. The rush for trains are especially visible during the vacations when people go back to their home.