Coaching centre boom is the cause

A major junction of the capital's road network, Farmgate, has now turned into a coaching hub, which draws tens of thousands of students from different areas every day, choking a major portion of the capital with traffic, says a transport expert.
The haphazard trips generated to and from the major junction leave a bad impact on almost every city road, said Shamsul Haque, a professor of the Bangladesh University of Engineering and Technology (Buet).
During a recent visit, The Daily Star found at least 75 coaching units (individual coaching institutions plus their branches) in Farmgate, where thousands of job seekers, university admission aspirants, and school and college students flock every day.
Md Kamal Uddin Patwary, director of University Coaching Centre (UCC), said no less than 8,000 university admission aspirants attended classes at his institution at different slots a day.
At Omeca, another admission coaching centre, more than 6,000 students aspiring for engineering education attend classes per day, said a teacher of the institution, wishing anonymity.
Locals said traffic situation in Farmgate area was worsening day by day, as a number of new business establishments and private student lodging houses were springing up there centring coaching business.
Prof Haque picked holes in the urban planning and said a planning must have a proper zoning system so that educational institutions, hospitals, and other emergency establishments became community-based.
He said the tailbacks arising from the trips of thousands to and from the junction left a ripple effect across the capital. This jam has no pattern at all either, he said, as students from different parts of the capital use different modes of transport, including buses, rickshaws, bicycles and private cars to visit the coaching hub.
“Unfortunately, Rajuk turned a blind eye to the very high concentration of coaching centres at Farmgate, which triggers such a huge number of trips every day that it puts a heavy burden on the roads," he said.
“In developed countries, before permitting construction of new buildings, the city authorities estimate the possible impacts on the road due to regular trips of people. This is what we call Traffic Impact Assessment.
“They go with this planning before allowing further establishment in the city, as it is very difficult to change the setup of an already built-up area.”
Prof Haque said, “Even a particular residential area in those countries is provided with all basic facilities like school, clinic, shopping mall and church so that people do not require travelling out of that area regularly.”
Chairman of Rajdhani Unnayan Kartripakkha (Rajuk) Md Nurul Huda admitted that the high concentration of coaching centres in Farmgate significantly contributed to the city traffic jam but said his office had no role to play here.