During peak hours traffic is virtually brought to a standstill confining thousands in their vehicles. Human suffering and loss in work hours are so enormous that they keep taking a serious toll on the national economy, experts said.

Experts had speculated the problem at the very conceptual stage of the flyover scheme but the government brushed aside the suggestions and went ahead to build the first ever flyover of the country at a cost of Tk 113 crore. Now that the cantonment road remains closed to public movement, increased vehicular pressure on the flyover is causing traffic jams. Sources in the Cantonment Board however said that the military authorities are now reviewing their policy regarding movement of public vehicles through the cantonment. An officials source said that they had already issued passes to 'hundreds' of public vehicles allowing them passage through the cantonment.

Experts said that the 'easiest and the most reasonable' remedy to Mahakhali traffic problem was to open up the road inside the cantonment for public use. The road could be opened till Banani or it could be stretched until Balurghat to create an alternative route to the airport and beyond. The Cantonment Board could 'sell the right to use' and earn millions in revenue.

The Deputy Commissioner (South) of the city traffic department, Ansar Uddin Khan Pathan said that his department, having studied the situation in Mahakhali, had proposed to the government to create a road through the old airport and connect Rokeya Sarani with Jahangir Gate.

"The traffic problem on the VIP Road in front of the PMO would then be greatly solved by diverting a huge volume of traffic," Ansar Uddin said.

"We also proposed to create a route from Zia Colony through northern side of the CMH and Kachukhet but so far nothing has been done," the DC traffic said.

Sources in the Dhaka City Corporation's Traffic Engineering Department said that most traffic related developments in the city are happening without any proper planning whatsoever. They said that the Dhaka Transport Coordination Board has failed to produce the Strategic Transport Plan, which is long due for the city. Unless the short and long term planning is completed and implemented, all these development will look amateurish, a traffic engineer said on condition of anonymity.

An official source in the communications ministry said that the original plan of the Mahakhali flyover had included a total of three 'legs' -- one of which hopped over Mahakhali bus terminal and Tejgaon-Gulshan intersection and landed on the Tongi Diversion Road in front of "Nabisco."

"The original plan was much needed in view of the present traffic situation there but it was mysteriously excluded from the plan without any consultation with the Traffic Engineering Department," said an official source of the Communications Ministry.

"We are also of the opinion that a road through the old airport would greatly improve the situation," said the official.

Thousands of vehicles in the city are already clogging the grossly inadequate road network. Experts said that a healthy city needs at least 25 percent of its total area for road communication but Dhaka has only 6 per cent in road network. City traffic managers, especially street level officers, expressed their frustration and said the sheer number of vehicles, especially large ones, taking to the roads every day is simply 'unmanageable' without a proper master plan.

Sergeant Zahir at Farmgate said that in many places the main roads are considerably narrowed down when buses ply and stop for loading and unloading. On the Mahakhali flyover old vehicles plying without any hand brakes are faced with a common problem of rolling back when stuck on slow moving traffic on the ascent. There have already been several accidents with such faulty vehicles rolling back on to other vehicles on the slope of the flyover.

Morshed Ali Khan is a Special Correspondent of The Daily Star