Shawdesh Desk: A committee formed with Dhaka South City mayor Sayeed Khokon as the head to ease the capital’s traffic congestion within past August could not even start its work due to the ongoing dengue crisis, said officials concerned.

Transport rights activists and experts termed the explanation as a ‘mockery’ as they said that the excuse of dengue crisis was unacceptable for the city corporations not doing the other important routine tasks.

The Dhaka Transport Coordination Authority on Tuesday gave a verbal reminder to the relevant officials of the capital’s two city corporations and of the Dhaka Metropolitan Police in a meeting to implement the decision.

The committee was formed by the road transport and bridges minister, Obaidul Quader, on June 19 at the 12th board meeting of DTCA where he directed the committee to ease the traffic congestion within the next two months, stop the movement of all illegal vehicles and illegal parking and to recover the footpaths in in the capital.

‘Nowadays we only take decisions which do not get implemented,’ the minister said at the meeting, adding, ‘In this time of mistrust I want to bring back trust through the activities of this committee in the next two months.’

The city, unfortunately, saw no change in the usual everyday traffic gridlock till today.

While passengers remain stuck in prolonged and nagging traffic congestions at almost all the major intersections in the capital, transport workers recklessly run especially public transports defying stoppage, lane and parking rules.

Vehicles without fitness on the city roads are a common scene while they run in front of personnel of the law enforcement agencies.

Besides, a huge number of vehicles are seen to park on roads, lanes and by-lanes wherever they get any space.

Footpaths in the capital are either occupied or damaged except in few areas, which have long turned into a nightmare for the pedestrians, especially for the female, elderly and people with disabilities.

The road minister, too, told New Age on Sunday that the road congestion easing committee could not work as per the directives due to the dengue menace.

The committee have the Dhaka North City mayor and the Dhaka Metropolitan Police commissioner as members while representatives from the DTCA, Department of Environment, Rajdhani Unnayan Kartripakkha, Bangladesh Road Transport Authority and from the road transport owners and workers associations are also included in it.

After the committee was formed it held only one meeting on July 2, confirmed DTCA executive director Khandakar Rakibur Rahman.

He told New Age on Tuesday that after that meeting the two mayors became very busy dealing with the dengue situation and as a result it might have become difficult for them to contribute on the congestion problem.

‘Today we did arrange a meeting to issue a reminder to the city corporations and DMP to implement the committee decisions by conducting mobile courts,’ he said.

The DTCA had also sent them letters earlier in this regard, he added.

Khandakar commented that traffic congestion would instantly ease if the bus services were managed properly, more walking facilities ensured for people and unfit vehicles removed from the roads.

‘Within the [allotted] two months whatever extent of success can be achieved it would be an inspiration,’ he said, claiming that within one month some progress would be seen on the roads.

Bangladesh Paribesh Andolan member-secretary and proper urbanisation and good governance advocate Iqbal Habib termed the target of implementing the decisions in two months as a ‘vague’ one.

Iqbal revealed that the south mayor at the first meeting of the committee, where he was also present, clearly said that implementation of the decisions would take at least three years.

With the existing infrastructure and manpower the city corporations were supposed to carry out all the civic responsibilities in a ‘parallel way’ and hence personnel for waste management and public health were not supposed to be engaged in traffic management responsibilities, Iqbal continued.

Before the committee was formed, there was a huge pressure for continuing the incomplete work (of streamlining the city traffic) started by late north mayor Annisul Huq at the same speed but in the meeting it became clear that the authorities went on back gear, he added.

‘The situation remains the same for lack of sincerity, confidence and trust which is a result of mockery,’ he said, resenting that no initiative was taken after the first committee meeting.

NGO Work for a Better Bangladesh Trust program manager Maruf Hossain said that easing traffic congestion, checking unfit vehicles, stopping illegal parking and recovering encroached footpaths were routine tasks of all the relevant government agencies.

‘During a crisis majority efforts are usually given to tackle the crisis but not at the expense of other duties,’ he said, adding, ‘It is unacceptable that the dengue crisis is shown as the excuse for not doing these routine tasks.’

Mayor Sayeed Khokon could not be contacted for comments despite repeated attempts.