Illegal parking, occupied pavement worsen jam

Star report
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On hartal days, streets of Dhaka look quite wide. But on regular days, they look like thin tapes choked with vehicles and the roadsides lost to illegal parking. Pedestrians are seen taking the roads due to occupied pavements.

The city streets have now turned into free parking for everybody. Almost everywhere vehicles are seen parked beside the roads and footpaths belonging to vendors, workshops and what not. Take the road in front of Dhaka College for instance. The four lane road shrinks into two lanes due to illegal parking.

The police department that is supposed to take action against such parking and occupation of pavements are literarily doing nothing. Similarly, the city corporation could have managed spaces for vendors and it is not doing that either.

The spaces lost to such offences can be revived by just solving these problems.

Hawkers occupy footpaths, pedestrians walk on the street. The ultimate result – little space for cars. Photo: Star

Walkways for whom? Photo: Star	Business booms on roads. Photo: Star

Double and even triple line parking like this reduces roads to less than half their width. photo: star