No road dividers, freestyle road crossings

  • Zahid Raqib, Staff Correspondent, Barta24.com, Dhaka
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photo: Barta24

photo: Barta24

There is a foot over bridge to cross the road in front of Rampura Bangladesh Television. Even if there is a bridge, common people go from one side of the road to the other side as they wish. There is an opportunity to cross the road freely at risk as there are no road dividers. Such a picture can be seen from Rampura Abul Hotel to Kuril Bishwa Road.

Motorcycles and rickshaw vans are regularly seen crossing with people as there are no road dividers along the 13 km road from Rampura to Kuril Bishwa Road. As a result, traffic jams are created across the road. As well as increasing the risk of accidents. Such a picture is not only on this road, but on almost every road in the capital Dhaka.

বিজ্ঞাপন

Meanwhile, the Road Safety Foundation informed that 426 people were killed and 813 injured in road accidents in September of this year. Among them, 179 people died in 164 motorcycle accidents.


A tour of the capital on the ground shows that during the anti-discrimination student movement (July-August) there are no road dividers in the areas of the capital where there were more clashes. Two months have passed since the dictatorial Sheikh Hasina government fled the movement, but the damaged road dividers in those areas have not been fixed yet.

Rampura, Badda, Naya Bazar, Kuril Bishwa road, Uttara, Abdullahpur, Mohammadpur, Mirpur road dividers of North City Corporation of capital Dhaka have been damaged more. Although the road dividers of the roads affected by the movement were damaged, the authorities did not take any visible initiative to fix them.

According to urban expert Professor Adil Muhammad Khan, president of the Bangladesh Institute of Planners (BIP), the capital is essentially an unlivable city. With unplanned urbanization in the midst of it, there is no order on the roads. With the change in the political pot in August, people's thinking has changed. But looking at the state of the city, it seems that the thinking of the authorities has not changed yet.

According to this expert, it should not take much time to repair the road divider that was damaged in the movement. But the city dwellers are crossing the road as they please due to the indifference of the authorities. This expert emphasized on the awareness of the people with the authorities.


Kalam Hossain was crossing the main road without using the Rampura TV Center foot over bridge. When asked why the road is being crossed without using the foot over bridge, he told Barta24.com that there is a problem in crossing the foot over bridge. Moreover, there are no dividers so you can cross the road quickly.

Same situation in Madhya Badda area without using the foot over bridge, everyone is crossing the road in their own way. Tahamid, a student of BRAC University in Madhya Badda, told Barta24.com that earlier there was a road divider on this road. Since these were demolished during the agitation, the City Corporation has not fixed them.

This student claims that as everyone is crossing the road, he is also crossing the road. He does not see any difficulty in it.

The speed of vehicles has decreased on this road due to crossing the road as it pleases. As a result, severe traffic jams are created. The traffic sergeants on duty are struggling to deal with the traffic jam.

Mamun Mia, who is in charge of the traffic police on Badda Link Road, told Barta24.com that no one is obeying the rules of the road. Common people are stopping cars and crossing the road as they wish. As a result, the risk of accidents increases as the speed of the vehicle decreases.

According to this traffic police, if the city corporation had fixed the road dividers quickly then people would not have been able to cross the road at will. Everyone was forced to use the footover bridge. It would have been convenient for us to work on traffic control.

Dhaka North City Corporation Chief Executive Officer Mir Khairul Alam told Barta24.com that a tender has been issued to repair the damaged dividers on the road from Rampura to Kuril Bishwa Road. Our work to repair the damaged road divider will begin soon. He called upon the common people to be aware and cross the road until the repairs are made.