Illegal parking chokes Dhaka-M'singh highway

Traffic jam has been an everyday phenomenon on Dhaka-Mymensingh highway as significant portions on both sides of the road at Chandna crossing in Gazipur remain occupied due to illegal parking of trucks and covered vans.

Though the situation has been prevailing there for long, it has worsened during the ongoing Ramadan, taking toll on pedestrians and commuters alike. 

During a recent visit to the area, it was seen that goods-carrying vehicles were parked erratically on both sides of the four-lane highway, occupying around one lane on each side.

Jamil Akhter, an employee of Shyamoli Garments Ltd in Dakhhin Salna area, said pedestrians cannot use the road smoothly as the goods-carrying vehicles are parked on the highway.

Palash Chandra Das was travelling from Mymensingh's Bhaluka to Chandna crossing. He said he had reached Chandna crossing after walking two kilometres on the highway after being stuck in a traffic jam in Dakkhin Salna area.

Locals said the tradition of parking trucks, covered vans and pick-ups illegally on the highway have been continuing for long. The engineering corps of Bangladesh Army renovated the four-lane highway around three years back and kept it under observation for a while. There was no such parking then. Things took a turn for the worse when the responsibility of maintaining the road was handed over to the Roads and Highways Department (RHD).

However, owners and workers of the trucks and covered vans said they are compelled to park their vehicles on the highway as there is no designated parking space for the goods-laden vehicles in the city.

A truck driver, Abdul Qadir, said politicians in the district have long been promising to allocate a parking space, but the promise is yet to be materialised.  

Meanwhile, some staff of the goods-carrying vehicles said they park their vehicles in exchange for money.

On condition of anonymity, some of them said every vehicle has to pay Tk 200 to the drivers' union of the goods-laden vehicles in the district each month for parking their vehicles on the highway. Moreover, the goods-carrying vehicles coming from outside have to pay from Tk 20 to Tk 100 to the union for loading and unloading facilities by the roadside.

Contacted, Abdul Motaleb, general secretary of Gazipur District Truck, Pick-up, Tank-Lorry Drivers' Union, outright denied giving any such permission in exchange for money. 

When this correspondent informed him that receipts under the name of the drivers' union are being used for taking money from trucks and covered vans, he said, "We don't know anything in this regard."

He said the goods-carrying vehicles are parked on the road in absence of a parking stand.

Asked, DAK Nahin Reza, executive engineer of RHD in Gazipur, said there is no scope for parking trucks, covered vans and pick-ups on the highway.

Mobile courts conduct raids to free the road from the illegal parking but things go back to square one afterwards, he added. 

When asked if there is any plan to allocate parking space to the goods-carrying vehicles, he said the transport workers had earlier placed the demand to Liberation War Affairs Minister AKM Mozammel Haque, also a local lawmaker.

Contacted, the minister said he had sent a letter to the Gazipur City Corporation authorities around a year back, requesting them to build a truck stand.