Street vendors, fruit sellers, beggars, teasers and loafers use most overhead footbridges. They occupy half the space of these bridges and leave a narrow strip for public use.

The congestion of a mass of people compelled most city-dwellers to resort to the traditional but extremely risky procedure of crossing busy streets.

"Traffic policemen have asked me a number of times to use the overhead footbridge, but I still do not, fearing lurking pickpockets," said Moinul Islam, a passerby near the Farmgate footbridge.

Pickpockets steal money under cover of crowd on the overhead footbridges and people, especially women, tend to avoid the bridges.

These vendors, when caught, are fined Tk 500-Tk 1,000 as imposed by the court or sentenced to up to 30 days in jail. On the other hand, pickpockets are sentenced to imprisonment of two to four years.

"We try our best to apprehend such miscreants, but these criminals tend to drift off as we make our daily routine checks and return after we are done," said Sub-Inspector Golam Maula of Tejgaon Police station.

The city currently has 31 overhead footbridges and 10 more under construction by Dhaka Urban Transport Project.