Jam worsens near New Market as Eid nears
With Eid shopping binge gathering momentum, the capital's Gausia, New Market and New Elephant Road areas witness increasing traffic jams.
Locals said traffic jams in these areas worsen during weekends and holidays and in the evenings as a huge number of people throng the markets.
Haphazardly parked cars on Mirpur Road and hawkers occupying pavements are the major causes of nagging traffic jams. Many are forced to walk on the road risking accidents.
Asked about unauthorised parking on the Mirpur Road, Traffic Sergeant Motiur Rahman said, "We try relentlessly to drive them away. While we drive them away from one end, they park on another end."
Dhaka Metropolitan Police (DMP) relaxed restrictions to allow hawkers sell their goods on parts of pavements during Ramadan considering economic aspects of people of lower-income group.
Shop owners at Gausia Market said they have got some relief this year as the authorities barred rickshaw movement on a 100-yard stretch of Elephant Road from Gausia Market.
During a visit to the areas Monday afternoon, The Daily Star found tailbacks on Mirpur Road from New Market to City College intersections.
Elephant Road resident Farhana Afroz said they witness severe traffic jams in the area particularly at Bata Signal since the beginning of Ramadan. "The jams have become so severe that we now walk instead of taking other vehicles," she added.
Locals said rickshaws block the entrances to different alleys first which pretty much blocks all roads in the area. They also said New Elephant Road remains plagued with jams as Eid shoppers going there get off their vehicles on the road slowing down traffic on the already narrow street. Besides, traffic policemen stop traffic on New Elephant Road at Science Lab intersection for more time to allow congestion on Mirpur Road to ease.
Even though community police have been deployed alongside traffic policemen to keep the front of markets rickshaw-free, swarms of rickshaws were found gathered near the shops with community police struggling to remove them.
"The traffic congestion is created in front of markets as rickshaws wait for passengers after dropping others. It often blocks roads causing jams," said a security guard of Eastern Plaza at Hatirpool.
Rickshaw puller Abdul Aziz told The Daily Star that it took him 45 minutes to reach Road-5 in Dhanmondi from New Market. Usually it takes 15 minutes.
"I charged Tk 60 to come to Gausia from Eastern Plaza," Mishuk driver Rafiqul Islam told The Daily Star. Asked whether he charged too much, he said, "What shall I do when it took more than half an hour to get here from a place only a kilometre away.”
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