The city has roads on only eight percent of its total area, which is far below the desired level. And the number of vehicles is increasing very rapidly. The situation becomes critical when the width of a road is reduced by parked vehicles in a busy area.

The Building Construction Rules, 1996 clearly stipulates the standard size of the parking area that a high rise building must have. But the rules are being honoured more in the breach than in observance. A survey conducted in Gulshan area has revealed that many of the existing and under-construction high-rise buildings have not at all bothered to comply with the rules. A large number of people visit these buildings every day and park their vehicles encroaching on the roads. The problem has been compounded by the fact that no open space is available in the vicinity of these buildings. Parts of roads are being used as parking lots, and it seems there is nobody to prevent such invasion of public thoroughfares.

The traffic managers have themselves admitted that spending millions on improving things like traffic signals, intersections and roads will not have any impact unless the main cause behind traffic jams i.e. lack of parking space is addressed. Worse still, they believe that the situation will deteriorate rapidly in the days ahead.

The decision-makers should take stock of the situation and firmly arrange to enforce the rules in order to untangle the traffic mess. Obviously, only lack of supervision and monitoring could permit construction of high-rise buildings in blatant violation of rules. The attempts to improve traffic management in the city without setting things right in the area where correction is direly needed can only draw a blank.

Enough is enough; the decision-makers should make sure that a high-rise building has a parking space without fail, as required under the law.