Why megaprojects alone cannot save 'slowest city' Dhaka

Dhaka, the bustling capital of Bangladesh, was ranked first on the list of slowest cities in the world, according to a new study that analysed traffic in over 1,200 cities in 152 countries.

The study titled 'The Fast, the Slow, and the Congested: Urban Transportation in Rich and Poor Countries' by the US-based National Bureau of Economic Research also included Mymensingh and Chattogram (9th and 12th positions) in the list of 20 slowest cities in the world.  

Traffic congestion is nothing new to Dhaka dwellers. But what is frustrating is that there appears to be no easing of gridlocks in recent times, despite more and more megastructures dotting the city's skyline. 

The government has poured in a lot of money into constructing the Metro Rail and Elevated Expressway to bring down the pressure of traffic. However, traffic control experts say capital-intensive projects alone cannot reduce traffic congestion and increase road speed, unless we impose discipline on the city roads. 

While we have surged ahead with the mega-projects, low-cost measures like bus route franchises and pedestrian-friendly footpaths still remain on the backburner.    

"Metro Rail and Expressway will give you comfort for a brief period of time. If you chant the slogan that there will be no traffic congestion in the city by constructing these, it means that you are inviting more people to Dhaka," said Professor Hadiuzzaman from the Department of Civil Engineering at Bangladesh University of Engineering and Technology (Buet), adding "We are very enthusiastic about the big budget projects because it involves a lot of money." 
" If you cannot control the traffic snarls, you cannot increase the speed on the road, this is science."  He said that if we want to increase the speed on the roads, we will have to formulate some policies and implement them accordingly. 

Partial implementation

The Strategic Transport Plan 2005 (STP) recommended that ramshackle buses be cleared away and the bus routes be franchised. The Revised Strategic Transport Plan 2015 (RSTP) reiterated the policy. But that has not seen much progress.  

As an example, Hadiuzzaman cited the Ghatarchar to Kanchpur route, where only the Nogor Paribahan buses are supposed to ply. But we see ramshackle buses also plying alongside them. 

"The piloting is not being implemented in a correct way," said Hadiuzzaman, adding, "the number of buses is low and failing to meet the demand of the passengers."

He said that Metro Rail and the Elevated Expressway are STP recommended development projects. But we also need to implement the best practices in traffic control to get the benefit of such projects.

Beside capital-intensive projects, RSTP also recommends low-cost measures such as implementing bus route franchises and creating pedestrian-friendly and functional footpaths.  

Shamsul Hoque, Professor of civil engineering at Buet, said that if projects like Metro Rail and Elevated Expressway were implemented in conjunction with disciplinary measures, they could mitigate traffic congestion. 

"We need a coordinated system," he said, adding, "the solution is imposing discipline through introducing the route franchises."

Hoque said the city corporation would have to clear the occupied footpaths. The number of rickshaws will have to be controlled and parking has to be regulated.  

In the past, traffic congestion was visible in the intersections. Now the congestion will be seen in the Metro Rail Station areas as well.  

"During peak hours, at a time, 500-700 passengers will get down at a station. The new stations will be hotspots of congestion."

Metro Rail or Expressway, whatever we use, ultimately, we will have to disembark onto the main roads, which do not have the capacity to accommodate the traffic load, he pointed out. 

The scourge of private cars

Dhaka has miserably failed to develop a public transport sector over the years. The road transport regulatory authority and the traffic law enforcement agency failed to impose discipline through traffic rules, as well as ensuring the fitness of buses in the city. 

As a result, people hesitate to ride buses and those who can afford it, end up buying cars. 

Private car owners have been occupying the lion's share of the city roads, leading to more traffic congestion and slowness in the city streets.

In 2014, Ke Fang, former Lead Transport Specialist of World Bank's Dhaka office wrote in the World Bank's blog that around 21 million trips are generated in the Dhaka city area every day.

Although private cars carry only 5% of the city dwellers, these cars also occupy 80% of the city road space.

"Yet 28% of the total trips are carried out by buses, which only use about 5 % of the road space," reads the World Bank's blog.

Ke Fang also wrote that 58% of the total trips are made by walking, bicycling, or riding rickshaws.

Until 2014, the number of private cars and jeeps [SUVs] registered in Dhaka stood at 225,441.  Till 2022, an additional 170,424 private cars and SUVs have been registered at Dhaka's BRTA office.

Although the initiative to implement bus route franchising began in 2016, no one knows when the piloting will be completed. 

Professor Hadiuzzaman said that BRTA does not have any statistics about the capacity of the city roads. "Then how will you control the number of vehicles? You do not have that research. As a result, BRTA has opened the floodgate for private cars on the streets."   

"The registration of new vehicles should be scientific. BRTA should provide the registration after knowing the capacity of the city roads," he said, adding, "BRTA can hardly generate a revenue of Tk1,500 crore annually by providing new registrations. In contrast, the country is losing Tk50,000 crore to traffic congestion. It will have to take these things into consideration."    

BRTA will have to phase out the vehicles whose economic life has ended. A few months back, the government issued a circular setting the economic life of buses to 20 years and for trucks, 25 years. The circular was postponed recently. 

BRTA also does not have any data on how many vehicles have run out of their economic life in the country. They do not have it, because many vehicles do not go to them for fitness verification. 

Professor Hadiuzzaman said that when we will phase out the unfit vehicles from the roads, the situation will improve. But BRTA is not taking any steps.  

"Political pressure is the only reason. There is no other reason."

Failure of agencies  

There are three government agencies responsible for controlling traffic in Dhaka: Rajdhani Unnayan Kartripakkha (Rajuk), Dhaka City Corporation (DCC) and Bangladesh Road Transport Authority (BRTA). 

"If these three agencies do not function properly, you cannot control the traffic congestion," he said.  

He said that the responsibility for land management in the city falls on Rajuk, but it is more concerned about housing projects. 

"There are high-rise commercial buildings on the arterial roads. We are calling them arterial roads but in fact, there are no such roads in Dhaka according to international standards," he said.   

He said that if there is an arterial road, there must be a service road and you should not be able to go to it directly from your building. An artery road is a road on which the importance is placed on mobility. There has to be a separate service road between this road and the buildings. 

Now, Rajuk can no longer change anything because the buildings have already been constructed. "If you do not have any artery roads, how can you increase the speed of the roads? If you have more artery roads, the speed of the city can be increased," said Hadiuzzaman.  

Meanwhile, the city corporation will have to determine the capacity of the roads in their jurisdiction. The Revised Strategic Transport Policy states that the footpaths need to be widened so that pedestrians can walk freely. 

"If needed, a footpath will be built taking some space from the street," Professor Hadiuzzaman quotes the report. "Because 25% of city dwellers walk to their workplace."

If we can make the footpaths pedestrian-friendly, the number of users will increase and it will bring down the pressure on the roads. 

To do that, the city corporation has to take control of the illegal parking situation, BRTA has to register new vehicles on the basis of the capacity determined by city corporation, and Rajuk has to make sure that no one can construct buildings without a traffic impact assessment. 

Hadiuzzaman says we have to now seriously think about the decentralisation of the administration. 

"There are many offices in the city, I don't see any reason to keep them here. There are many government research institutes which are supposed to be situated outside the city."