Suffering on the Dhaka-Chattogram highway

Abnormal traffic congestion has brought the Dhaka-Chattogram highway into the news once again. Half a kilomotre of the road has been made one-way due to the construction of a flyover at Feni, and this has created enormous congestion along the highway.

The distance between Dhaka and Chattogram by road is 264 km. The Feni problem has created a tailback of 70km along this highway. This situation has been going on for a week now. It is taking near around 24 hours to traverse this eight hour distance.

It is surprising that the authorities did not even think what situation would emerge if they made half a kilometer of the four-lane Dhaka-Chattogram highway into a one-way stretch. They should have created a detour or alternative route at first, before undertaking this arrangement. It cannot be comprehended how this was done on a highway without taking any proper measures in advance.

The present situation may be unprecedented, but the state of the Dhaka-Chattogram highway was precarious in the first place. This highway, known as the country’s economic lifeline, is always congested with a burgeoning rush of vehicles. The two-lane highway has been made into a four-lane one, but the time of commute is simply increasing by the day. It has become disorderly and chaotic. So much time and money has been spent on this highway, but it has yielded no benefit. It is the lack of proper and coordinated management that has led to this situation.

The highway may have been made four-lane, but the three bridges along it remain two-lane. The bridges should have been included in the four-lane project from the outset. Now second bridges are being constructed. Until those are completed, the situation will remain unchanged.

Management is a big problem. The authorities have failed to prevent vehicles travelling in the wrong direction and the also prevent markets cropping up randomly along the highway. What is the use of spending so much on the highway police if they cannot enforce drivers to drive on the right side of the road and maintain discipline on the highway? The Dhaka-Chattogram highway has none of the features required of a proper highway.

Integrated long-term planning is required for effective road communications. But the Dhaka-Chattogram highway which has come to a virtual standstill, is a glaring example of lack of such integration and planning. It is the lack of good governance and accountability that lies behind this predicament. It is because of this that the flyover at Feni hasn’t been completed as yet, even though construction started five years ago.

One can only imagine the sufferings of the passengers and drivers along the Dhaka-Chattogram highway. This is affecting imports and exports. It has pushed prices of import and export goods up by 50 per cent. Ramadan has begun today and Eid is ahead. Imports of essentials increase in this period, so there is no alternative but to ensure extra arrangements and improve the traffic management. The drivers must be forced to maintain discipline on the roads. The situation must be made bearable at the least.