Some still driving on the wrong side
It seems that the strict enforcement of traffic rules has brought some discipline on the city streets, but some vehicles are still found going against traffic.
As a part of the continuous drive against such driving, police yesterday fined 32 drivers for using the wrong side of the street near Bijoy Sarani intersection in the capital. The drive was conducted between 4:30pm and 7:00pm.
The vehicles include two cars of two assistant commissioners of police, a BRTC bus of Bangladesh University of Textiles, a microbus, three auto-rickshaws and 25 motorbikes.
At the spot, The Daily Star found that most of the drivers claimed that they took the wrong side to avoid congestion.
Mosleh Uddin Ahmed, additional commissioner (traffic) of Dhaka Metropolitan Police, who was present during the drive, said they would not allow anyone to use the wrong side, and action was also taken against the two police officers' vehicles.
On an average, 300 to 350 vehicles were being fined daily for driving on the wrong side of the street. The number of vehicle fines was 400-450 just a month ago, he said.
Mosleh Uddin said they would not be able to stop driving against traffic overnight, but the statistics showed the tendency of such practice was now decreasing. The drive against the practice would continue, and they were hopeful the practice would finally come to an end, he said.
Asked about taking action against university buses, he said they already informed the university authorities of taking action if any university bus used the wrong side of the road.
Earlier, the DMP conducted a three-day special operation against wrong-side driving, beginning on September 24. A number of vehicles, including that of a state minister, a lawmaker, several top bureaucrats and journalists, were fined during the drive.
The drive was conducted again on October 4 on Hare Road in the city when 41 more vehicles, including that of a Public Service Commission member, were fined.
According to traffic police records, police fined 116,026 vehicles in the last fiscal year for travelling against traffic.
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