Unholy nexus putting the brakes on Dhaka’s public transport: Prof Hadiuzzaman

He says ensuring road safety is a holistic approach, not just enforcing rules or building infrastructure

Professor Md Hadiuzzaman, a former director of BUET’s Accident Research Institute, has emphasised a holistic approach to ensure road safety in Bangladesh, not just enforcing rules or building infrastructure.

He also believes an ‘unholy nexus’ between the politicians and the owners is holding back Dhaka’s public transport system from making any improvement.

Despite substantial investment, there seems to be little improvement to the chaos on Bangladesh’s roads.

Motorcycles and three-wheelers run on highways while unfit buses ply Dhaka’s streets.

Though the metro rail and the Elevated Expressway are notable developments, concerns over public transport persist.

http://bdnews24.com’s ‘Inside Out’ spoke to transport expert Prof Hadiuzzaman on a range of issues, including how ad-hoc policies have given rise to more problems.

Speaking about Dhaka’s public transport, he said people see regular complaints about many aspects of this system.

“Public transport has always acted as a backbone for a city. Unfortunately, we could not make the backbone straight. The reason is that it's a political nexus. There is an unholy nexus, I would say, because in the past, we tried to implement bus route franchising.

“This is the model that's working everywhere in the world, even in Kolkata and Delhi. They already transformed their public transport into the bus route franchising that I was saying. But unfortunately, we could not implement that.

“We tried it. We did the experiment, but it failed. Because of the unholy nexus.

“There is the nexus, and within the nexus, there are bus owners, there are local powerful politicians.”

He thinks the philosophy of the people in this nexus is: “If the system is in chaos, they are getting benefit.”

“Because if the system is chaotic, if within the system, there are illegal vehicles, unauthorized vehicles, what happens, you know, there is an opportunity for extortion.”

“So they are getting crores of money. They are getting benefits personally. But the capital city, the users, those who commute every day, they are at risk.

“They are not getting the service. So in order to bring it into the discipline that you are saying, I think we need policy support, strong policy support. And apparently, the political will,” Prof Hadiuzzaman said.

“Without strong political will and policy support, you cannot break the nexus. If we can break the nexus, then I think the implementation of the disciplined bus route franchise.”

He said Bangladesh has invested a huge amount in the city’s infrastructure during the last decade.

“But I think if we can just invest Tk 5,000 crore (50 billion), our bus service will look like the London bus service.”

ROAD SAFETY

‘Inside Out’ asked Prof Hadiuzzaman how can Bangladesh make the roads safer in the short term.

“If you have some shortcomings in planning, it will offshoot some challenges. And in order to reduce these challenges, you need to take on another project,” said the professor of BUET’s civil engineering department.

“We are actually in a circle of the project. When we are building infrastructure, mostly the flyover or roads or expressway, we often neglect the land use. There is always a cycle between the road infrastructure and land use,” he said.

“If you don't control the land use, you will see that the very healthy road, once within four or five years, will be risky,” he explained.

“So, we always say that when you build a road, you need to do the safety audit regularly, every one or two years at a regular interval.”

Healthy roads become risky in a short period because of illegal structures, such as markets encroaching on the roads, Prof Hadiuzzaman said.

“What I want to emphasise is not only the road infrastructure, you need to think about integration with the land use,” he said.

If the authorities cannot control the land use, they will not be able to prevent illegal, light and vulnerable vehicles from using the highways, according to him.

“We always think about the road infrastructure, but the people, those who are living for a long time beside the road, we are not paying proper attention to them.

“Even if you build a road, they will cross the road, because it's a physical barrier, but you cannot make a barrier in terms of heart connection. They have relatives, they have many jobs to do, and they need to cross for their own activities.

“So, that's why you need to take proper attention when you build an infrastructure, not only the vehicle, but also the pedestrians, also the people that live beside the road.”

“And what happens actually when we build a road, we are only taking into consideration the right of way, what we need for the road. But beside the road, the people who are living, we are not taking any integrated approach,” said the accident expert.