Hundreds of buses on different long-distance routes remain parked occupying both the sides of different city roads narrowing spaces for traffic movement, for what traffic jam is intensified in capital Dhaka. For the illegal and indiscriminate parking of buses on different rows on both the sides of the road, pedestrians even cannot walk on the footpaths.
During a random visit, it was seen that several hundred buses of different companies remained parked on both the sides of ShaheedTajuddin Ahmed Avenue, stretching from Satrasta intersection in Tejgaon to Mohakhali Flyover. Somewhere buses were seen parked on a single row on both the sides, while at some other places buses were seen parked at least on three on rows.
A number of employees of those buses told the Bangladesh Post that their buses ply on different long-distance routs from Mohakhali. They have to keep their buses on the roadsides due to space shortages inside the Mohakhali terminal. They said they mainly have to keep their buses on the roadside during the period of off-time. They, however, claimed that they keep their transports parked on the roadside with the permission from the traffic police department.
Seeking anonymity, some of the bus employees and drives alleged that they have to pay for the parking purpose to police.
Contacted, PrabirKumer Roy, Deputy Commissioner of Traffic-North Division of Dhaka Metropolitan Police, said,police allowed those buses for parking on the roadside only at night considering the lack of capacity of Mohakhali bus terminal to accommodate all the buses. “The Mohakhali bus terminal has the capacity to accommodate only 300 buses although several hundred buses ply from the terminal to their different destinations across the country”, said DC-North (Trafficc) Prabir Roy.
In a reply, the police official said, the bus owners and employees have been permitted to park on a single row on the roadside. If any of them violet the permission, they would be taken under legal action. In another reply, he, however, could not show any alternative way so that the roads are possible to keep free from the parking of buses.
Like ShaheedTajuddin Ahmed Avenue near Mohakhali bus terminal, same scenarios were seen near the all the bus terminals and bus counters like Gabtoli, Shyamoli, Kalyanpur, Sayedabad, Jatrabari, Babubazar, Fakirapool and other places. Talking to the Bangladesh Post earlier, Dhaka North City Corporation Mayor Atiqul Islam said they were serious about keeping the roadsides and footpaths free from all kinds of illegal occupation. The DNCC Mayor also said they were thinking of conducting mobile court operations against the illegal occupiers of the roadsides and footpaths.
