Towards a jam-free Sylhet
After an immensely stressful year for people everywhere, Sylhet City Corporation's resolution for the new year is simple -- make life simpler for its citizens.
As the city is growing fast, the city corporation had initiated a project to expand road-width, along with plans to construct new footpaths some years ago, but traffic congestion and hawkers occupying footpaths kept setting it back.
To avert the situation this year, SCC, in association with Sylhet Metropolitan Police (SMP), has planned to make its major roads hawker-free, as well as prohibiting non-motorised vehicles in some congested roads.
Mayor Ariful Haque Choudhury said, "It's been years since we're trying to keep the city roads free from hawkers and traffic congestion. Finally, with the help of SMP, we're being able to do so."
Md Nisharul Islam, commissioner of SMP, added, "The presence of hawkers in Sylhet's streets create great suffering for citizens. We will ensure that they do not get to sit on these roads anymore. As the SCC has ordered rickshaws off some city roads, we'll help them enforce this decision too."
The roads include -- Chowhatta to Taltala via Zindabazar and Bandarbazar, Kean Bridge and its adjacent area, Bandarbazar to Dhopadighir Par, Zindabazar to Mirjajangal and Zindabazar to Nayasarak.
As part of the plan, a total of 1,070 regular hawkers from these areas were listed and rehabilitated to a new temporary makeshift hawker market at Laldighi field of Bandarbazar area, one of the city's most important commercial areas.
The list was generated by SMPs traffic division by surveying and verifying these hawkers.
Faisal Mahmud, deputy commissioner (traffic) of SMP, said, "To keep the roads free from obstacles, as per the new road transport law, we've been working to remove hawkers, but they were not willing to move without rehabilitation. After SCC allotted a temporary place for a hawker's market, we listed the regular hawkers and were able to rehabilitate them."
He also told this correspondent that the roads are being monitored by eight traffic inspectors to ensure they are free from hawker occupancy.
Besides hawker rehabilitation, SCC has also initiated a non-motorised transport free Chowhatta to Bandarbazar road. Effective from January 1, transports like rickshaw, push cart and rickshaw-van are prohibited from entering these roads, said Bidhayak Roy Choudhury, chief executive officer of SCC.
Meanwhile, hundreds of rickshaw pullers protested the decision by forming a human chain at Jitu Miah Point in the city on Thursday morning.
Comments