Vehicles regularly get stuck in gridlocks in front of reputed educational institutions in the port city just before and after school hours. Photo: Anurup Kanti Das

Chittagong Metropolitan Police (CMP) will make the road from Barik Building to Bahaddarhat off-limits to rickshaws from January next year in order to reduce traffic jam in the port.
The police have also asked four educational institutions in the area to arrange their own transports.
CMP and Chittagong City Corporation (CCC) will also launch a joint drive against the rickshaws plying the city roads without licence.
The CCC will also mark separate lanes for fat and slow moving vehicles within six months to implement the decisions, said the city corporation sources. Separate roads will also be constructed for different modes of trasport.
Chittagong Development Authority (CDA), CCC, Bangladesh Road Transport Authority (BRTA), transport owners and workers' organisations and high officials took the decision at a meeting at the CMP headquarters on Sunday.
To create awareness among the drivers and the helpers, a training programme will also be organised within two weeks with the help of BRTA, CCC and CMP, sources said.
A team will also monitor the training programme and evaluate it.
The city corporation has been asked to mark zebra crossing on the roads within six months to create a pedestrian-friendly environment in the city.
CMP Commissioner Abul Kashem told The Daily Star that the decision was taken to lessen the gridlock on the road from Barik Building to Bahaddarhat, life-line of the city.
Construction of parking zones in specific areas is necessary for developing the traffic system in the port city, he said, adding that the CDA had approved designs of parking zones of many commercial organisations. But they had constructed their buildings without keeping adequate parking space that caused traffic congestion in the city, the commissioner said.
“Many schools, colleges and universities are mushrooming the roadside areas without arranging their own transports”, he said. The guardians also create gridlock during the institutions' starting and closing hours as they take their children by their own transports.
Stressing the need for maintaining own transportations, he said many reputed educational institutions have no central transportation system for their students.
Kashem said roadside schools are causing gridlock.
Mohammad Kamrul Islam, a resident of Jamal Khan, told The Daily Star that the streets in the area get stuck in a severe gridlock during the school and college hours due to parking of the private vehicles, obstructing the vehicular movement.
Shahin Khan, a resident of Two Number Gate area, said it takes from one hour to two every day to go to Agrabad from Bahoddarhat due to traffic jam, without which it would have taken only 25 to 30 minutes.
CMP Deputy Commissioner (Traffic) Faruque Ahmed said, “If we could free the busy intersections from rickshaws, 80 percent of the traffic congestion in the city would be reduced.”
Seven educational institutions have been identified due to which the traffic congestion occurs in the port city, CMP sources said. Of the seven, four have been asked to arrange their own transportation for their students, CMP sources said.
The schools are Ispahani Public School and College, Khastagir Govt Girls' High School, Bangladesh Mahila Samity Girls' High School and Chittagong Grammar School.
CMP Assistant Police Commissioner (Traffic) Muhammad Shahidullah told The Daily Star that giving priority to the problem, they are making a plan for the rickshaws.
Engineer Subhash Barua, a town planner and also an expert on road and traffic management, said decisions had been taken many times before which did not see light of the day.
Terming the decisions time befitting, Subhash said the city corporation should take necessary steps, including alternative rickshaw ways for the benefit of the rickshaw-pullers before implementing the decisions. He stressed on mass transportation to lessen the traffic congestion in the city.
The number of rickshaws plying the city streets are triple to what the streets can handle.
Around 35,000 rickshaws are registered in the port city but CMP traffic department and CCC say that around 1.5 lakh rickshaws ply the city roads.