Dhaka’s Pragati Sarani is a nightmare for commuters

Travelling through Pragati Sarani is a nightmare for residents of Dhaka -- one-fourth of the street has been grabbed by encroachers.

The portion of the link road between Gulshan-1 and Middle Badda is always caught up in traffic snarls.

Walk through Pragati Sarani and you will run into hawkers, stocks of fruits, construction materials and cars parked for hours and rickshaws right in the middle of the streets. Even temporary shops have sprung up.

Not only the main road, but also the footpaths have been grabbed.

The pedestrians are thus forced to take the street, making the congestion rather severe.

Domestic waste has been piled up on different parts of the street.

To make the situation further worse, city corporation put a number of waste containers on the road, making for more congestion.

Regularly, buses, minibuses and human haulers stop on the road to let passengers off or pick them up.

Goods-laden trucks and trailers add to the suffering at night.

Covered vans standing beside the road for loading and unloading of goods of garment factories are also responsible for the traffic gridlock.

Basundhara Residential Area resident and banker ‘Humayun’ regularly use the street for travel to and from Motijheel.

“I keep one or two hours more than the usual travel time to go anywhere through the road. Otherwise you are sure to be late," he says.

Regular bus passenger ‘Munir’ says, “You will never get rid of jam anytime of the day, no matter morning, evening or night.”

He says, “The snarls are so severe that the buses shut their engines to wait during office hours."

Unless the encroachers are driven away and strict parking rules are enforced, Pragati Sarani will remain a commuter's nightmare.