Bangladesh News

Dhaka city will be an abandoned city within a few years unless a sound public transportation network is established and private cars are strongly controlled, Adviser M Anwarul Iqbal said yesterday.

The adviser for local government, rural development and cooperatives said this at the foundation-laying ceremony of Banani-Gulshan Bridge over Gulshan Lake.

“Public transportation will have to be modernised while private cars strongly controlled and roads and bridges increased for safeguarding the capital from abandonment,” Anwarul Iqbal said in his speech as the chief guest at the ceremony on Road 11 of Bannai in the capital.

The four lane 90-metre-long Banani-Gulshan Bridge, connecting Road 11 of Banani and Road 41 of Gulshan, is projected to be completed by next year at a cost of Tk 14.5 crore.

The caretaker government has undertaken several schemes including the Banani-Gulshan Bridge to ease traffic congestion in the city, added the adviser hoping that the bridge would be constructed before November 2008 when Chief Adviser Fakhruddin Ahmed would inaugurate the bridge.

Addressing the ceremony among others, Prof Abdullah Abu Sayeed, a renowned environmentalist and educationist, said half a million people are settling in Dhaka every year. In order to save the capital, he also emphasised the need to develop a public transportation network and at the same time reduce the number of private cars.

“The services of public transportation will have to be improved. Besides, the government should immediately impose tax on private cars by 500 percent so that people are discouraged to buy and use private cars. Otherwise, it will be difficult to keep the traffic jams under control in the capital,” said the professor.

ASM Shahjahan, former adviser to a caretaker government and president of Banani Nagorik Committee, said once the Gulshan-Banani Bridge is completed, the residents of the capital would be able to get multiple benefits from it.

Local Government Engineering Department (LGED) will construct the bridge and maintain it for the first year before handing it over to Dhaka City Corporation.

Local Government Division (LGD) Secretary Safar Raj Hossain presided over the programme. LGED Chief Engineer Shahidul Hassan and LGD Joint Secretary Mizanur Rahman also spoke on the occasion.