I came to Dhaka alongwith my family in February 1950, when its population was not even two hundred thousand. The city stretched from the banks of the Buriganga river up to and around the railway line which ran through Wari, past the Hardeo Glass Factory, the Baldah Gardens and the then Governor's House (now Bangabhaban). The High Court, the present Secretariat premises, the Curzon Hall, Medical College and the Dhaka Club were the few signposts outside this perimeter. The traffic consisted of about one thousand one hundred motorised vehicles in and around the city. In fact, the total motorised transport population of all descriptions, throughout the country was less than three thousand. In Dhaka City, or Dacca as it was then known, there were also many rickshaws and about ninety horse drawn carriages. It was a beautiful, green city whose streets were lined with tall trees which added grace and charm to the environment.

Today, we share a mega-city of concrete with nearly 12.6 million inhabitants and 334 thousand motorised and half a million non-motorised vehicles. Shortage of living space goes hand in hand with accompanying problems -- very little drinking water, unbelievable traffic jams, poor maintenance of law and order, terrible sanitation facilities, regular power outages and polluted air. All these and the absence of parks and playing fields for children, make Dhaka a city, not much to write home about.

Out of all these difficulties, the one which affects all of us immediately when we leave our homes is the sad state of the transportation system in this capital. It is affecting everybody in more ways than one in their efforts to access to 'their place of work, to schools, health centres and market places'.

The problem of easy transportation is compounded by the fact that there are nearly 2,500 garment factory units in Dhaka City with its more than one and half million workers, all of whom require reliable transport facilities. The spill over effect affects all entrepreneurs in the private sector underlining the strong linkage that exists between good urban transport on the one hand and the socio-economic life on the other. We must not forget that infrastructure is a kind of link that acts as a barometer in determining how a city's network is functioning.

We all know that the status of transport greatly determines accessibility to jobs and economic resources in the form of direct investment, education and health facilities and availability of other social services. It plays a vital role in the process of integration of the people living in mega-cities and their alternative opportunity costs in terms of available resources.

The efficiency of the existing public urban transport infrastructure is particularly 'crucial' not only for the economically disadvantaged section of the population but also a primary reason for greater inflow of people into the inner city (within walking distance of their place of work) as opposed to residence in the outer reaches of city limits. This affects the women, children and the elderly who are all that much more vulnerable. This factor leads them to an over-crowded standard of life, which in more ways then one is socially unsafe.

Contemporaneous Dhaka is facing traffic congestion due to may factors. The more important ones appear to be -- massive increase in population, over-crowding due to insufficient area for living space in the urban fringe, limited primary and secondary roads, absence of real increase in the length of roads consistent with the percentage rise in the number of vehicles, lack of proper facilities like bus bays, footpaths, automatic traffic signal points (the number has come down from 68 to 11 -- of which 2 are within the Cantonment -- a totally inversely proportional situation), road lights and good drainage systems.

In addition to the above, there are also difficulties connected with poor use of road space by transport modes (rickshaws occupy 73% of road space although their share of persons taking trips per day is only 56.5%), poor street maintenance and management (undertaking street repairs during the rainy season), different city utility providers working at cross purposes, presence of twenty rail gates within Dhaka City to facilitate the running of 72 daily trains in different routes, clogged narrow intersection structures which lead to traffic congestion, haphazard stopping and parking of buses by unskilled drivers at the roadside blocking traffic flow and mix of many types of vehicles with different speeds which cause chaos and inefficiency.

The situation assumes a frightening dimension when planners predict that Dhaka's population will eventually touch 18.6 million by 2025.

The government might have a National Land Transport Policy but the question that we face is whether enough is being done to identify the problems and then implement solutions. I understand that consultants from Germany and the UK are assisting our authorities to find sustainable solutions to this intractable problem.

Various alternatives are being discussed. It ranges from relatively cheap rapid bus transit (as has already been done in various Asian cities like Jakarta, Kunming, Nagoya, Taipei and as under completion in Beijing, Bangkok, Seoul and Shanghai), to circular waterways round the city, to vertical solutions through the building of highways and flyovers (in view of the land constraint problem) and to the putting in of a subway (running from Motijheel to Uttara with stops in Karwan Bazar and Mohakhali).

The proponents of the last option support their initiative by pointing out that the soil structure in Dhaka is similar to Calcutta and that the subway track could be built through the existing land which presently facilitates railway traffic through the city. This they argue, would not require new acquisition of land by the government or demolition of any legal structure. In the same breath they advise the changing of the location of the existing Kamlapur railway station. They also suggest that the ground level, on top of the subway could be used as a main or a highway.

What I cannot understand is why there cannot be amalgamation of the above ideas. Why not remove the main railway station from Kamlapur to Uttara, beyond the ZIA? Subsequently, the existing railway track cold be used for an inner city transit train, or the tracks could be removed entirely for the purpose of putting together the cheaper rapid bus transit system. Later, this system could be expanded to include transportation on some of the main north-south communication arteries. This, I presume could be implemented quickly and would be relatively less expensive. The energy quantum requirement for maintaining the requisite infrastructure would also be comparatively less.

Having a subway would require massive construction cost, delay in eventual implementation and also steady supply of high quantum energy (which we really do not potentially have for the moment). We are also already experiencing the problems associated with having flyovers. It is expensive, takes inordinate time and disrupts city life for everyone other than those moving around in flag cars with police escort.

We already have a Dhaka Transport Coordination Board and many other Agencies associated with transportation -- Dhaka City Corporation (DCC), Rajdhani Unnayan Kartipakkha (RAJUK), the Bangladesh Road and Transport Authority (BRTA), Dhaka Metropolitan Police (DMP), Bangladesh Inland Waterways Transport Authority (BIWTA) and the Bangladesh Road Transport Corporation (BRTC). Unfortunately, it appears that there is little coordination among these bodies. In many areas there is overlap and insufficient clarity with regard to areas of responsibility. This is contributing directly to deterioration in the quality of transportation within Dhaka City and also in road safety.

The major institutional weaknesses in Dhaka having a sustainable transport structure could probably be identified as -- poor spatial and functional jurisdictional coordination, lack of technical capability and absence of any comprehensive strategic land-use and transportation plan.

I see no reason why we cannot resolve this problem. What is required is greater seriousness on the part of the government. They need to think of alternatives and better coordination between institutions. Relevant measures could also be introduced with regard to planned time-lag routines for educational institutions, to relocating garments industries outside the city of Dhaka and to developing a multi-modal framework involving relevant modes of potential transportation means.

The existing transportation problem will only get worse unless we tackle it more intensively. This requires a bi-partisan approach. Consequently, the whole issue should be debated thoroughly in the Parliament.

Muhammad Zamir is a former Secretary and Ambassador.