When a city can’t take pressure of its school-goers

After being stuck in traffic for hours on Wednesday, a Dhaka judge called a reporter of The Business Standard and asked, "What happened to the Dhaka roads?"

When he heard that the resumption of full-time school hours alone brought the city to a standstill, he had a hard time believing it at first.

Gridlocks continued to cripple Dhaka traffic yesterday after schools had resumed regular classes a day prior, causing unspeakable sufferings for the capital's residents as the city, unable to take the pressure of its own school and college goers on its roads, came to a standstill.

Commuters including office goers and students of schools and colleges suffered the most due to hours of long tailbacks on practically all major roads in the capital.

The Dhaka Metropolitan Police's traffic department identified two major causes behind the crippling traffic – increased vehicle movement for dropping and picking up students, and transport union election, which was held at the Mohakhali Bus terminal on Wednesday.

Visiting the Dhaka Metropolitan Police's Central Command and Control Unit at Abdul Gani Road on Wednesday, the terrible traffic condition became apparent from the live CCTV streams that displayed long tailbacks on most Dhaka roads.

"You can rarely see the vehicles moving as if the city roads turned into a museum of private cars," a traffic official said.

"BAF Shaheen School just adjacent to the VIP road caused major problems on the Mohakhali-Airport road for the last two days. Hundreds of cars parked on the VIP road and dropped off students," a deputy commissioner told TBS.

He added that during morning hours the traffic congestion spread further to Ramna and Motso Bhaban area as well.

Another Mohakhali zone traffic official told TBS that transport worker and union leaders held an election at the Mohakhali Bus Terminal on Wednesday and they parked all the long route buses at the main road causing long tailbacks on the Airport road.

Md Refatul Islam, assistant commissioner of DMP's Ramna traffic zone told TBS that development projects and renovation works of city corporations and other agencies pushed the city to a standstill and the reopening of school-colleges made it even worse than usual.

"We have analysed that around 20,000 private vehicles drop and pick up students at the Viqarunnisa School and college's Bailey Road branch alone. Earlier, guardians used to send their students through school vans or buses. But they are not interested in doing so these days. Everyone owns a car and they use it to send their child to school."  

The traffic official also mentioned that during the morning shift at around 6:40am, they had no problem dealing with traffic but when the first school shift ends and another begins around 10:30-11am, the traffic drastically turns horrible.

Hundreds of cars were also seen in front of the Wills Little Flower School and Motijheel Government Boys School in the capital.

Traffic Inspector Nurun Nabi, who is deployed at the Khilkhet area, told TBS that the most number of private vehicles move through the Airport road than any other roads in the city and the ongoing mega projects have added to the worsening traffic conditions on this route.