Four lanes not enough
There is a report in New Age, of a second proposal for a 4-lane highway to Chittagong from Dhaka. Why only 4 lanes?
We need at least 6 lanes, 8 would be preferable. Only then will traffic be able to flow freely.
Look at it this way. The inside lane is needed for the cha wallahs, fruit stalls and other commercial enterprises. Without this provision life as we know it would come to a halt.
It is also needed for slow bus stops. A slow bus stop is where the older buses, and I mean here buses older than 20 years, stop, sometimes never to go again. The passengers in these buses are usually old, and don’t care if it takes a long time to reach their destination. Some of them are so old they’ll never make it. They just sit in the stationary bus, and spit out of the window on passing cars, all day long. It’s like a human version of a car wash.
The second lane is where law-abiding cars travel. Law-abiding cars are driven by old driver wallahs, trusted servants of the car owners, who in turn are almost always trusted servants of government chamchas from the ministry of nothing much to do. The driver wallah has been with the trusted servant for, well… for almost ever, and the trusted servant has been with the government chamcha for as long as he can keep a dark secret, something to do with ‘commission’. It all seems to work; don’t worry.
In the third lane travel the fast buses and other high priority traffic, such as CNG 3-wheelers and a pedal rickshaw overtaking a bus parked outside a cha wallah’s stall. Some cars venture into this lane, usually with a complete extended family inside going to the farthest reaches of Bangladesh for Eid, which was last week, but hey, in Bangladesh, time is a flexible concept!
Sometimes a fast bus will stop to pick up a priority passenger, such as the driver’s aunt’s cousin’s friend, who needs to go to the Kanchpur Bridge to pick up a packet of paan, or a policeman. In this case, it has the right to stop in the third lane, especially if the two inner lanes are already occupied by other stopped buses.
In the outside, fast lane, there is all the action one could ask for. Here travel the bastions of Bangladesh society. First, and most important, are those two-wheeled carts with a mighty load of steel reinforcing bars, each one longer than the biggest bus, ends flailing in all directions, and pushed by four sweating coolies. Why the outside lane? Because two miles down the road they’re going to turn right, through a gap in the concrete divider, thoughtfully provided by locals with sledgehammers, and they don’t want to make a sudden turn.
Also in this overtaking lane is a convoy of police cars, chamcha carriers and a new four-wheel drive vehicle, in which is sitting a government bigwig in a hurry to get to his next appointment. The sirens in the police cars are shrieking and wailing, and the police inside are having a wonderful time waving their arms in the hope that ordinary people, who let’s face it only exist for the convenience of the bigwig, will get out of the way and let him through.
Often, the bigwig’s four-wheel drive has tinted windows. You might think this is for confidentiality because the bigwig is reading highly secret papers. I once saw inside, and actually he’s holding his mobile in his left hand, talking to his hot little bit of stuff in Gulshan, and the index finger of his left hand is jammed up his right nostril. The convoy is trying to make it to Gulshan before the bigwig’s hot little thing goes cold and there’s nothing left to do for the bigwig but to start on his left nostril.
I hope this has been informative, and plans can be made for the immediate build of a proper motorway from Dhaka to Chittagong. It is, as you can see, sorely needed.
Richard J Murphy
Baridhara, Dhaka
Oil price is decreasing!
Oil prices in the international market have started to decline. The price of kerosene oil has been reduced to $67.13 per barrel from $74.37. Lately in our country, the oil price was increased multiple times with the pressure from the World Bank though the government shows the plea of an increased price in the world market.
If the government’s plea is true, the price of the oil should decrease now as the price in the international market has come down and is likely to be reduced further. The price of diesel, octane, and jet fuel is also decreasing day by day in the world market. The government of Bangladesh is still silent about the matter.
Bus fares in the city and on different long route have increased in the name of increased oil prices. Will our government decrease the oil price now or serve the imperialist World Bank and IMF as their local agent?
Taslim Hasan (Sabu)
University of Dhaka
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