Relief, not tailbacks

The city dwellers had feared a traffic nightmare due to Awami League's national council yesterday but the case turned out to be the opposite as there was hardly any congestion on many city streets.

A better traffic management and many people staying indoors were the reasons why there was no traffic chaos in the capital.

Yesterday, many did not come out of their homes unless they had to while many postponed their meetings and other scheduled appointments fearing traffic disruptions due to the two-day AL programme at the Suhrawardy Udyan.

Several offices, business and educational institution remained closed as well. A fewer number of public buses and cars plied the streets.

A massive preparation from the Dhaka Metropolitan Police (DMP) to control traffic during the council helped minimise public sufferings on the streets, said police.

The DMP had made and released a sketch map detailing the routes AL councillors, delegates, leaders, activists and guests would take to reach the venue, and the roads would be off-limits to vehicles.

Abul Kalam, a leader of a bus owners' association in the capital, said most of the people in the city did not come out fearing traffic gridlocks.

“But it turned out to be entirely the opposite case. The number of both passengers and vehicles were quite low,” he added.

However, the scenario could be different today as it is a weekday and all the government offices and educational institutions will open after a two-day weekend.

“I had two important meetings today but I postponed them as my clients did not want to get out of their home fearing sufferings on the road,” Mokhlesur Rahman, a businessman who lives in Malibagh, said yesterday.

Ashiana, a class-IX student of a Dhanmondi school, had to skip one of her coaching classes after the coaching centre sent her a text message, saying she need not attend classes yesterday.

However, many commuters faced immense sufferings, especially in the morning, due to lack of public transports. The AL council started at the Suhrawardy Udyan around 10:30am.

“My office is in Karwan Bazar but I had to come to Gulistan as I failed to get any bus to reach my destination,” said Ismail Hossain, who was waiting in Gulistan for another bus to go to his office around 9:30am.

aking the advantage of the transport crisis, drivers of some buses and CNG-run auto-rickshaws, and rickshaw pullers charged passengers extra.

“The CNG fare for a distance from Kataban to Kalyanpur is around Tk 150. But most of the drivers were asking for Tk 350 to Tk 400,” Moazzem Hossain, a businessman from Kataban, said yesterday.

HOSPITAL SITUATION

The number of outdoor patients at Bangabandhu Sheikh Mujib Medical University (BSMMU), Dhaka Medical College Hospital (DMCH) and Birdem Hospital was lower than that of other days.

Many of the patients faced trouble getting to the hospitals due to lack of transports.

“I have made the entire distance from Jurain in a rickshaw. It cost me Tk 250,” said Fazila Begum, aged around 60, who had gone to the BSMMU at Shahbagh to bring medicines for her ailing husband.

Many patients had to visit the hospital on foot as traffic movement on some adjacent streets was restricted.

On an average, some 3,500 patients receive the hospital's outdoor services but the number was quite low yesterday, said authorities at the Birdem hospital.

“As most of the people already knew about the programme at nearby Suhrawardy Udyan, they decided not to come to the hospital,” an outdoor official told The Daily Star.

Farid Uddin, an attendant of a patient, said he waited at the Shahbagh intersection for over an hour to go to Sadarghat. He got a CNG-run auto-rickshaw later but it charged him an additional Tk 100. 

Some DMCH patients who were suggested to have some pathological tests done at a Dhanmondi centre had a hard time in the morning as some of the streets near the hospital, in Buet and Palashi area, remained restricted to traffic.

But the situation improved later on and the patients had no trouble in getting back to the hospital.