Mismanagement causes gridlock, not rickshaws
Speakers at a roundtable yesterday demanded separate lane for rickshaws instead of the government move to ban the human-powered vehicle on Dhaka streets.
They alleged that mayors of the two city corporations have already banned rickshaws on three important roads without creating alternative work for a large number of destitute rickshaw-pullers.
Rights activists, university teachers, architects and representatives of rickshaw- pullers were speaking at the roundtable on “Public transport and rickshaw in Dhaka city: reality, problems and way forward”, held at Jatiya Press Club.
Bangladesh Institute of Labor Studies (BILS), a labour rights platform, organised the discussion following a recent High Court (HC) directive on the authorities concerned to sketch a master plan to reduce traffic congestion in the capital.
Speaking at the event, MM Akash, a professor of economics at Dhaka University, said rickshaws would not create traffic congestion if the government introduces a separate lane and regulates it through a proper guideline.
Until the government can arrange alternative work for thousands of rickshaw-pullers -- as their family members depend on their income, rickshaws should not be banned, he said.
Akash stressed on introducing a strict parking law for all types of vehicles, arranging workshop for drivers and providing identity cards to rickshaw-pullers to mitigate traffic congestion.
Rezaul Karim, a professor of social work department at Jagannath University, said rickshaws are needed in Dhaka as this sector employs a large number of people and are an inexpensive mode of transport for city dwellers.
“Big cities around the world have separate lanes for bicycles. We need to introduce separate rickshaw lanes here. The cause of traffic jam is not rickshaw, but mismanagement,” he said.
Sramik Karmachari Oikya Parishad Joint Coordinator Naimul Ahsan Jewel said only 10 percent of the total population in Dhaka commute by rickshaw and a large number of poeple use private cars. “So, rickshaws alone are not causing traffic jam,” he claimed.
BILS Chairman Habibur Rahman Siraj presided over the discussion which was addressed, among others, by the platform’s Executive Director Jafrul Hasan, Bangladesh Institute of Planners Secretary General Adil Mohammed Khan and Jatiya Rickshaw Van Sramik League General Secretary Insur Ali.
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