The document discusses the causes of traffic congestion in Dhaka City, Bangladesh. It identifies several key causes: a significant increase in population and vehicles; the simultaneous presence of motorized and non-motorized vehicles on roads; traffic mismanagement due to violations of traffic rules; and poor transportation planning and infrastructure development. Recommendations to address the problem focus on improving public transportation infrastructure and services, expanding and upgrading roads, and developing rail transportation options.

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2. The Causes of Traffic Jam in Dhaka City

3. Executive Summary
Dhaka city’s traffic system is considered to be one of the most chaotic ones in the world.The
residents are compelled to undergo physical stress and suffer financial losses in terms of man-
hours lost on working days. The media, both print and electronic, have been constantly
highlighting the sufferings of the commuters in Dhaka city because of the nagging traffic
problem. Yet no solution to the problem, apparently, is in sight, at least, in the short and
medium terms, though a lot has been said and a big-enough programmed, undertaken with the
assistance from a multilateral lender to improve the traffic situation of the capital city in recent
years. Various attempts were taken by previous governments including special meeting with
the agencies concerned to devise means to help reduce the intensity of traffic problem in
Dhaka city. In the past politicians were often blamed partially for the chaotic traffic because of
their alleged involvement in billion-taka toll collection from bus and truck owners and bus
terminals. The advisers of the caretaker government were believed to be clean in this respect.
Yet, there was no improvement in the traffic situation. The public buses are still ignoring the
authorized bus stoppages and picking up and dropping passengers from any point -- even from
the middle of the road. At the bus stoppages, the drivers park buses in a haphazard manner
blocking normal traffic movement. Then again, the buses do very often overtake other vehicles
from the wrong side. Over 95 per cent of the buses plying on different routes of Dhaka city do
not comply with requirements under the Motor Vehicles Act (MVA). They do not have back
lights, indicators etc.

4. INTRODUCTION
Traffic Congestion is one of many serious global problems in both developed and
undeveloped countries. Dhaka City, the capital of Bangladesh and an area
experiencing rapid population expansion and traffic congestion, will be examined in
this research design. This research paper will examine the effects that traffic
congestion have on Dhaka City. It will illustrate the following objectives:
 An analysis of the causes behind the traffic congestion problem of Dhaka City,
 An discussion and critical analysis of the present planning approaches that
Bangladesh Government is taking regarding this issue, and
 Discussion of possible ways to overcome the problem.
This research design is a unique and single case study with embedded units of
analysis. “Traffic congestion” in Dhaka will be analyzed from the author’s personal
experience as a direct and participatory observer. Other sources of evidences will be
utilized to support this design, such as books, journals, newspapers and documents.
Some relevant cases from cities in Asia are also examined to provide comparison
and contrasting data.

5. DHAKA CITY
1. .DhakaCity was established on the bank of the river Buriganga and at that period a river-based
economy controlled the city dwellers. From that time, the city grew only at one side of the river,
mostly towards north. After the independence of Pakistan, Dhaka City was declared as the
provincial capital of East Pakistan. The river was dying gradually while the land communication
from Dhaka to the other parts of the country was improving. Dhaka city exploited the following
factors and used them to their advantage: Dhaka’s historical background, fine climatic condition,
advantages of being a capital city, better quality of life comparing to other cities.
2. The intolerable traffic congestion of Dhaka City has become an everyday certainty and a
nightmare for the city dwellers. It can be easily concluded that Dhaka has marched into the 21st
century as an over-populated, over-congested and over-polluted city. Years of negligence,
mismanagement, improper planning and political instability have led Dhaka to this present
predicament.
3. Bangladesh is one of the top ten poorest countries of the world. The capital city Dhaka can not
afford the economic and environmental loss resulted from this severe Traffic Congestion.

6. VEHICLES OF DHAKA CITY
Dhaka City has several types of vehicles. Income-wise the use of different transports is as
follows:
1. Higher Income Group: Car, Taxi Service, Micro Bus and other private vehicles.
2. Middle Income Group: Rickshaw, Auto Rickshaw, Bicycle, Motor Cycle, Carriage, Car, Bus,
Minibus.
3. Lower Income Group: Bus and Tempo.
4. Goods Delivery: Truck, Pick up, Van, Human Driven Van
The trip distribution of Dhaka City is very much different from the other similar cities of
Asia. Almost 66% of the total trip distribution is on foot, 11% is on Rickshaw and the rest
23% is others.

7. TRANSPORTATION OF DHAKA CITY
Public Sector Private Sector Informal Sector
Bus service managed and
operated by Bangladesh Road
Transport Corporation. Other
institutions having fleet of
buses include; Public sector
office and semi-government
institutions.
Medium and small sized Mini
buses and coasters operated
mainly by small sized
operations or individual
owner-managed companies.
Mainly cycle rickshaws operated by
individual owners up to a fleet of 100
or more rickshaws. Most rickshaws
are rented out to drivers for eight-hour
shift.
In 1998, rickshaws were the 38% of the total vehicles of the whole city. In 1999, there are 79619
Licensed Rickshaws in Dhaka. Till March 2000, this number has increased up to 88000. At present Dhaka
have about 350,000 rickshaws, most of which are unauthorized.

8. In 1998, rickshaws were the 38% of the total vehicles of the whole city. In 1999, there are 79619
Licensed Rickshaws in Dhaka. Till March 2000, this number has increased up to 88000. At present
Dhaka have about 350,000 rickshaws, most of which are unauthorized.

9. REGISTERED IN BANGLEDASH (PER YEAR)
Year Private Car Motor Cycle Bus Taxi Truck
2011 1335 4125 123 00 182
2012 2186 3453 91 01 160
2013 3312 3189 225 00 509
2014 6923 4427 145 25 802
2015 8386 4027 73 35 615
2016 6528 5346 58 14 834
2017 4984 4992 184 102 1681
2018 7893 6991 394 203 2364
The number of public transports, especially the buses, is very low comparing to rickshaws or other vehicles.

10. CAUSES OF CONGESTION
 Significant increase in population and also all types of vehicles
 Simultaneous presence of motorized and non-motorized vehicles on the same street
 Traffic mismanagement: Violation of Traffic rules and regulations
 Poor transportation and infrastructure planning Other Issues
Significant increase in population and also in all types of vehicles
All of the major export oriented Industries, corporate offices, significant number of
Export Promotion Zones, the head offices of almost all Multi National Companies, higher
educational facilities and even the major International Airport of the country, all are
located in or around the greater Dhaka city. Thus the city controls the economic
development of the whole country. For these reasons, most of the rural-urban migration
of Bangladesh is towards Dhaka City and it constitutes about 60% of Dhaka’s increasing
population. Dhaka, at present, is one of the top most populous cities of the world. At
present the greater Dhaka has about 10 million populations. The city’s urbanization rate is
one of the highest of the world and it is projected that by the year 2010, Dhaka will be the
sixth largest city of the world with 18 million populations.The increasing population
obviously increases the demand for more vehicles on the streets.

11. Simultaneous presence of motorized and non-motorized vehicles on the
same street
In Dhaka City, both motorized
and non-motorized vehicles
occupy the same streets at the
same time. Their speed is
different and that is why it
creates chaos and congestion on
the street. Most of the rickshaw
“pullers,” or drivers, do not have
any training and they are not
even aware of the traffic rules.
Rickshaws have some positive
points also. They are
environment friendly vehicles.
Some transport researchers of
the western world are recently
talking about Eco-friendly
transportation trends. There are
some cities like Paris, which
have introduced rickshaws on
their streets.
Rickshaws Another positive point is, rickshaw is
economically very suitable for the middle income people,
who can not afford to buy a car and also do not want to take
a ride in a heavily congested bus. There is also a privacy
factor. Bangladesh is a Muslim country and Muslim women
usually prefer privacy. Rickshaw can give them this privacy
along with the economic affordability.

12. Traffic Mismanagement
Insufficient number of traffic police and traffic signals, flaws in traffic markings, violation of
traffic rules and regulations etc can also be cited as some of the main reasons for traffic
congestion in this city. Some points are discussed here:Violation of Traffic rules and regulations
 There is a lack of education and consciousness among the citizenry about the traffic rules.
 People who come to the city from villages for employment, rickshaw pulling becomes the most
easily available job for them. They do not need any formal training to start this profession. In
most of the cases, they do not even take a legal license.
 Most of the time, the pedestrians crosses the busy streets even if there is no crosswalk. People do
not usually use the over bridges or underpasses, which are constructed in the important and busy
intersections of the city.

13. Most significant causes of Traffic Jam
People usually do not want to follow the traffic rules, as there is no proper implementation of
these rules. Even though traffic police is usually present at every nodes or intersections, they
do not do their duties properly. Traffic rules are also very flexible. One can easily avoid the
fine by giving bribe to the police.
The deployment of Military Police on Dhaka’s road shows that if traffic rules are properly
enforced, people must obey it. We had this experience experimentally more than three or four
times in the recent years.
Encroachment of roads and sidewalks
Street vendors, Hawkers and street front shop owners occupy above 60% of the 163-
km footpaths of Dhaka City. The sidewalks are also filled up by construction materials,
garbage or even temporary houses of homeless people or beggars. Very often
pedestrians are forced to walk on the main roads instead of using the sidewalks
because of these reasons.

14. Poor Transportation and Infrastructure Planning
Unplanned Growth of the City:
Dhaka City had its first Master Plan when it was a province of Pakistan
in 1959. But besides 3 or 4 exceptions, nothing was implemented from
that master plan because of the political instability. Later after the
independence, there were couples of Structure Plans, 2 year to 5-year
plans. But it is a very common incident that people and also the authority
do not follow those plans always. New developments are always taking
place in Dhaka City without any coherent road system. More than 3000
big and small shopping centers have mushroomed on the main roads from
the last 8/10 years.
Lack of minimum required road structure and disproportionate road width
comparing to the traffic load Dhaka City has very inadequate road
networks, which are only 8 or 10 percent of the total city area, whereas
the acceptable ratio is 25 percent. Greater Dhaka has a total road network
of approximately 2230km of which 25% are primary roads. The width of
the roads varies from 6 to 40 m. The main roads are 15 to 25 m wide,
newly built roads are 40 m wide while the roads in the older part of
Dhaka are less than 6 m wide.

15. Improper and inadequate Public Transport System:
One of the main problems of Dhaka City is its very limited Public Transport System.
Bangladesh Road Transport Corporation [BRTC] is no more subsidized as it became
private in 1993. Now, 90% of this corporation is in private sector and 10% in
government sector. Before being privatized, the yearly loss of BRTC in the year
1991, ’92 and ’93, was almost Tk100000 – 200000 [US$ 1960 – 3920]. Now, in
private sector the yearly turnover is Tk50000000 [US$ 980392].
There are three private companies, which are doing Transport (bus) business.
The presence of Road and Rail Line on the same ground level:
The existing “intercity rail line” passes through the four important Central Business
Districts and a number of important and busy roads of Dhaka City. When a train
passes, lots of vehicles have to wait near the rail crossing, which causes serious
traffic congestion at the interval of every 15 minutes as an average.
Inadequate Parking Facilities:
 Most of the new shopping centers or commercial buildings do not have adequate
parking facilities. People have to park on the roads, which ultimately narrow down
the effective width of the roads to a great extent.
 Before the approval, many building projects show that they will provide parking
facility in the basement. But after getting the authorization to construct

16. Other Causes:
Political reasons: Everyday at least one or two street processions or protests occur
in Dhaka because of the all-time political instability of Bangladesh. These processions
slow down the traffic flow of the important streets during the peak hour.
Lack of manpower: As it was said before, the people of Dhaka City usually do not
follow the traffic rules if there is no police on the roads. The existing number of
policemen of Dhaka City is only 1561 [1999 data]. If we compare this data with that of
Delhi, which has almost the same volume of population, we will see that Delhi has
more efficient force with 12000 policemen.

17. Recommendations:
Although the problem of traffic congestion is universal, its solution is highly geocentric.
What is applicable or what should be applicable in Europe or USA, might not be
applicable in every country of Asia. As for Bangladesh, we cannot also take some
remedies like USA or Europe because of our technical or technological deficiency.
Bangladesh Government is trying to prepare some strategic plans and policies to
improve the transportation system of Dhaka City, mostly to meet the future travel
demand and to reduce the severe traffic congestion of present time.
QUESTIONS THAT MAY ARISE:
 Whereas many modern cities of the world are now thinking about environment
friendly vehicles, will we remove rickshaws from our streets or will we improve
them?
 What are the Govt. plans and who are preparing it? Are these new plans really can
help improving the situation? What will be the funding source? This paper will try
to give some recommendations regarding reducing the traffic congestion.

18. Policy Recommendation:
 Dhaka City has very limited infrastructure. It can not support the existing people and vehicles on its
roads. People of Dhaka City are facing Electricity shortage, Gas shortage and also Water shortage. If the
most of the roads can not carry the traffic load now, what will happen after five years?
 Obviously the supply side remedies will come first. We have to increase the number of buses or improve
the mass transport system if we want to attract the middle class people to move by bus. We have to
increase the number of roads, the width of roads.
Supply Side Remedies: The Integrated Transport Network Plan for Metro Dhaka (1995-2019) has
proposed some supply side remedies to overcome the traffic congestion of Dhaka City.
Road:
 Expansion and upgradation of public transport services, especially high capacity buses
 Construction of 217 km of Roads
 Construction of 25.8km of Link Roads to provide corridors to ease the intracity traffic
movement.
 25km of existing road widening program
 Construction of OverBridges and Under Passes for easy pedestrian movement
 Construction of eight flyovers over the most serious congested nodes or intersections

19. Rail:
We have a long rail network throughout the Dhaka City. We have to use this line
not only for long distance travel but also for inner city movements. Dhaka
Integrated Transport Study (DITS) is thinking about the following issues:
 Upgradation of the Narayanganj-Kamlapur existing rail line: It can attract as
many as 55000 potential passengers and thus reduce the load from the
Narayanganj-Dhaka Bus Route and also from severely congested Gulistan Bus
Station.
 Subway development program
 Development of an electrified commuter line extending to Tongi.
 They can take more remedies such as
 Increasing the number of high capacity public transports such as double decker [2
levels] buses
 Construction of by-pass roads for trucks and long route buses
 Construction of Parking Garages in the CBDs and near the busy shopping areas
like Elephant Road, Hatirpool, etc
 Standardization of existing traffic management system

20. Alternative Design
Thinking Vertically : It is very tough to build new roads or to expand the
width of the existing roads, as the city is too much congested. At this
moment if we think about the supply of new roads or to improve them, we
probably have to think to go vertically. We can build highways and over
bridges to face the land constraint problem.
Changing the location of the existing Railway Station :As it is described
earlier that the existing rail line makes a great impact on traffic congestion.
We can change the location of Kamlapur Railway Station from Kamlapur
to somewhere near the Airport. If we can do this, we can avoid the traffic
congestion it creates every day at the interval of every 10/ 15 minutes.
Choosing the right route for Subway: We have to think that building
Subway is not the ultimate solution. In many developed cities [ex-New
York City] or undeveloped cities [ex-Calcutta City] have subway system,
but they also have severe traffic congestion problem. Still, a subway can
attract many people of Dhaka City to use the public transport. The most
important or crucial thing is to decide a suitable route for Subway. A
proposal can be provided for the Subway route.

21. Other Policies
We have to do something about our existing land use pattern. For example, Mirpur Road is one of the
most important and the longest roads of Dhaka. Earlier, even before 2/3 years, there were mainly
residential developments on the both sides of this road. Recently it has been declared as a
commercial street. Lots of shops and other commercial activities are constructed now on the both
sides of it, which creates severe traffic congestion almost all the time. Similarly other residential
areas of the city are transferring partially to commercial areas, such as Dhanmondi and Banani.
These sudden or gradual changes in the existing land use create congestion and thus suffer the
residents of those areas. We also have to have strict zoning laws so that the developers can not build
high rise apartments [12 to 20 floors] in front of the 20 feet wide road.

22. Conclusion
The US$284 million Dhaka Urban Transport Project [DUTP] aims at reducing the congestion of Dhaka,
improving the public transport system and strengthening policy and regulatory framework. The
International Development Agency is providing US$117 million for the DUTP while the Government
will finance the rest. Under this project the Dhaka City Corporation and BRTA are working together to
prepare a long term Urban Transport Plan that would be able to cope with future growth of the city,
improve road safety, reduce congestion as well as protect the environment.
At this stage we also have to think about some alternative growth trends. No more Dhaka City can bear
the load of its population and provide them the service even what it is giving now. A decentralized
growth of this city is highly recommended to avoid the possible economic decline.
We have to find out the real reasons why people from all around the country are migrating mainly
towards Dhaka City. The rural and regional economy should be made stronger and active enough to
provide landless and jobless people some job opportunities. We have to establish a proper balance
between the rural and urban economy. Measures should be taken not to stop migration, but to keep it
within a manageable level to properly provide for the destitute, who form the majority of the migrants
and the informal labor force. And steps should be taken to establish new regional growth centers like
EPZs and Industrial Parks surrounding Dhaka City, which will work as nuclei. All the economic
activities of the country are centralized mainly on Dhaka City; it should be decentralized to the other
Divisional Cities like Chittagong, Khulna, Sylhet, Rajshahi and Barisal.
In this way we can reduce both the human and traffic loads from the roads of Dhaka City and can
reduce the air pollution, noise pollution and also make the people feel proud of this city, a megacity of
the new millennium.