The first flyover

While inaugurating the flyover, Prime Minister Khaleda Zia also spoke of a master plan to streamline metropolitan traffic along modern lines. The plan includes things like subway train and other facilities befitting a modern city. We welcome the vision in the plan and hope that it would be implemented in a time-bound fashion.

However, for a real improvement in the traffic system, the planners have to take a holistic approach instead of a piecemeal one. The eye-catching embellishments, which are to an extent essential too, alone cannot ensure the qualitative change in traffic management that we are looking forward to. In their bid to upgrade the traffic infrastructure through implementing big projects, the planners should not lose sight of the absolutely essential facilities, often low cost, without which the city can never attain the status of a well run modern metropolis. For example, construction of high-rise buildings and shopping centres is being allowed very generously. These could be interpreted as a sign of prosperity, but it is not at all clear why most of these structures do not have parking lots, a dire necessity for a city with a huge population and a rapidly growing number of vehicles. The costs of providing parking lots are quite negligible compared to the huge amount of money invested in the construction of prestigious buildings and shopping centres. Provision for parking lots should be made mandatory considering the regular traffic congestion on the city roads.

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The newly constructed flyover is supposed to ensure smooth movement of traffic on a very important road stretch. However, we will have to wait and see how it works in practice. Ancillary bypasses may have to be constructed for dispersal of traffic at certain exit points down the line.