With the expansion of trade, commerce, industry and urbanisation, the population of the port city of Chattogram is also increasing fast. But public transport has not increased compared to that. At present, the population of the city is more than 6.0 million. But there are about 3,879 registered public transport only. However, there are various types of private vehicles including private cars, freight trucks, covered vans etc.
As a result, few public transport and a large number of private vehicles are making the traffic management of Chattogram Metropolitan fragile day by day.
Despite the implementation of several development projects including road expansion and construction of flyovers in the port city, the intensity of traffic congestion seems to be increasing.
The World Bank and the Chattogram Development Authority (CDA) have drawn up a 10-year master plan for the management of public transport in Chittagong city. The draft master plan shows that 75 per cent of the passengers in Chittagong city use public transport, though only 17 per cent of the road space is used by buses.
On the other hand, although private cars carry only 5.0 per cent of passengers, they occupy 29 per cent of the road space. In addition, rickshaws and autorickshaws carry 27 per cent passegers, compared to 8 per cent for passenger transport.
According to a report by Chattogram Metropolitan Traffic, public transport is the main mode of transportation in every modern and developed city. However, despite the huge demand for public transport in Chittagong city, autorickshaws, rickshaws and private cars have met only 11 per cent of the city's passenger transport needs and occupy 56 per cent of the roads.
Due to the lack of supervision by the regulatory body BRTA and CMP traffic police, public transport on the road is declining. At least five routes have already been closed due to the car crisis, causing passenger sufferings.
According to the Chittagong Metropolitan Transport Owners Group, many vehicles were damaged due to the stoppage of vehicles in Corona. A significant number of cars are in operation on a contract basis to carry workers to the garments.
There are 13 bus and minibus roads, 16 human haulers and 18 auto-tempo roads in the city. In addition, the number of fixed ceilings for buses, minibuses, human haulers and tempo services on different roads is 5,079, but only one-third remains vacant almost all the time.
Besides, 200 bus ceilings have been fixed for factories and EPZs but 60 ceilings are vacant. As a result, buses of other routes for industrial workers leave at different times of the morning and afternoon. As a result, commoners face traffic crises during the peak hours of the day.
Passengers in the city say that the number of unauthorised small vehicles has increased in the city due to the shortage of buses and minibuses. School and college-going students or regular office goers can be seen facing traffic crisis in the city’s Kaptai Road, Bahaddarhat, Notun Bridge, Muradpur, 2 No. Gate, Oxygen, GEC, Newmarket, Agrabad etc. areas.
Travelling by smaller vehicles costs the passengers extra time and money.
Will this change?
The steps taken by the government so far to reduce traffic congestion in Chittagong city are isolated and scattered. It was once thought that the construction of flyovers would solve the traffic congestion which turned out wrong.
This has proved the lack of planning and inefficiency of the people concerned. The lack of an integrated plan is evident. The number of motor vehicles registered in Chittagong is about 1.5 million. But the road didn't grow compared to the number.
As roads won’t expand overnight, the only solution is better traffic management. Illegal occupation, illegal parking, dumping of construction materials on the road, halting bus or other public transport at any place to pick up and drop off passengers, crossing the road anywhere randomly - solving these issues will alleviate the situation to a significant extent.
The number of people in the city who rely on public transport is relatively higher than the number of private vehicle users. Therefore, more public transport is needed. The quality of public transport has to be enhanced as well to encourage people to use these vehicles rather than private cars.
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