Poster Paper Proc. of Int. Conf. on Advances in Civil Engineering 2012
An Overview of The Faulty Decisions of City Authorities at Azimpur Intersection of Mirpur Road in Dhaka City A. Ahmed.1 and Tarik H. Binoy2 1
Final year undergraduate student, Bangladesh University of Engineering & Technology (BUET), Dhaka, Bangladesh. Email: asif.civil.buet.12@gmail.com 2 Final year undergraduate student, Bangladesh University of Engineering & Technology (BUET), Dhaka, Bangladesh. Email: tarikhabib.ce@gmail.com given for their temporary parking needs. The situation gets worse when shopping malls are permitted without any parking provision which affects the traffic movement in the full corridor. Moreover, permission of shopping malls near intersections without any frontal access road makes the condition worse. To see the adverse effects of ignoring above mentioned aspects, study was conducted in an important junction namely Azimpur intersection and its adjacent roads which are subsequently described in the following sections.
Abstract—Road Intersection is a time-sharing space upon which the performance of the full corridor depends to a large extent. Malfunction or poorly designed and maintained junctions lead to chronic congestion. Unplanned development beside the intersection also impairs the movement of both through and turning traffic. Moreover, road side footpaths are mandatory for pedestrian movements. If footpath is blocked by temporary shops, pedestrians are compelled to come into the road causing a concern of their safety as well as traffic congestion. In this paper, an overview of faulty decisions of city authorities in an important road intersection of Dhaka city and its surroundings are discussed. An attempt has been taken to focus on the irrational decisions of the city authorities’ viz. Rajdhani Unnayan Kartripakkha (RAJUK) and Dhaka City Corporation (DCC) to give permission of almost 25 markets near intersections without provision of any parking. By conducting photogrammetric survey of the area, it is found that a totally unattractive scene now exists in the area even 50% of the existing road is lost sometimes due to side frictions. City authority, who supposed to be the guardian of the city, is making non-engineering, unscientific approach to solve problem which rather is acting as a problem creator, as such there is a need for revising the permission guidelines of shopping malls near intersections.
II. METHODOLOGY An inventory survey was made to chalk out the number of markets near the intersection. The road width was measured by odometer. Besides, the scenario of the roads in morning period and afternoon period was observed and analyzed. III. LOCATION & EXTENSION The market is located at Azimpur, with Mirpur Road on one side and Pilkhana Road on the other. The market is a centre of retail shops. Initially it hosted a total number of 468 shops [3]. Back in 80’s, Dhaka City Corporation (DCC) constructed 3 more New Market blocks in the north side each having over 1000 shops [4]. In Fig. 1, the marked polygon is the present market.
Index Terms— Intersection, City authority, Parking
I. INTRODUCTION With the growing of car ownership day by day and side by side lack of adequate parking facilities, the problem of parking has become a serious issue. In Dhaka, up to 2003 number of registered private cars were 87,866 whereas after June, 2011 it climbed up to a grand total of 1,74,122 which indicates almost doubling the figure in 8 years only [1]. The total number of motor vehicles is 6,43,003 after June, 2011 showing 27.1% of private cars which caters only 5.1% of total trips [2]. Obviously, these increasing private cars require not only street space to move but also require space to park as well as loading – unloading space. A very high concentration of parking demand in front of every large development is found even in the form of multiple rows of parking which is acute in front of shopping malls. Now, considering the fact that 10,682 auto-rickshaws and almost 6,00,000 rickshaws are carrying almost 45% of trips which is much higher than that of car- logically emphasis must be © 2012 ACEE DOI: 02.AETACE.2012.3.14
Fig. 1. Location of New Market
IV. MARKET HUB The area near the intersection is surrounded by not only New Market but also other numerous markets. Also there is a cinema complex namely Balaka Cineworld there. Besides, there is also a book market just opposite of New Market which is 179
Poster Paper Proc. of Int. Conf. on Advances in Civil Engineering 2012 the biggest book market for school, college and university students having more than 200 shops. The markets situated very near to New Market are Chandrima Super Market, Chadni Chalk Super Market, Nilkhet Bakusha Market, Islamia Nilkhet Market, Nur Mension Shopping Center, Dhanmondi Hawkers’ Market, Nurjahan Super Market, Eaquabe Super Market, Islamia Mension Shopping Market etc. The following GIS map shows the best layout. In this figure, the marked triangle at intersection is New Market area whereas other lines are different markets. Now, this is easily understandable that just how adverse impacts can be upon the full corridor leading to a non-functioning intersection. Fig. 3. No side friction at Mirpur road in the morning
Fig. 4. Almost half of the road is being deducted by car parking, roadside shops & slow leader in the road. Fig. 2. New Market and its adjacent markets.
V. CONGESTION HUB New Market is situated near a junction. Unfortunately, the city authority just expanded it without provision for parking of the vehicles. In a country like Bangladesh, cars are chauffeur driven and most of the trips are made by paratransit and NMV. Unfortunately, again there is no space for loading-unloading of the vehicles. As a result, a huge amount of road space is being lost from the road and the effective road width is being reduced by a huge margin. Instead of solving the traffic induced congestion by New Market, city authority has given permission to other numerous markets within a very short distance leading to a deadlock in the road in evening peak. The Mirpur road is 80 ft wide in front of the market, 12.2 meter (40 feet) in each way. It has been observed that in market opening days nearly one-third of the road is excluded by the road-side markets and parked cars which becomes almost half at the end of the day. Again, only BDT 10 is charged for car parking irrespective of how much time car parks. This irrational charging encourages the car owners to park for a long time. Fig. 3 to Fig. 6 describe the present scenario. At morning road is at its full capacity. But at the afternoon, it gives a completely different look.
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Fig. 5. Boarding in running bus in the mid lane, inactive traffic police and people walking in the main road instead of footpath.
VI. SEPARATE RICKSHAW LANE In order to alleviate traffic jam, previously DCC has banned rickshaw movement in Mirpur road. The decision of DCC of banning rickshaw from the main road and giving them an exclusive lane did not work out rather it created more congestion in the rickshaw lane and increased the sufferings. From Dhanmondi-1 police box to New Market a lane is given for the rickshaws but this was done without any analysis but only from assumption. Due to parked car in the inner road, rickshaws cannot move freely leading to an increased travel time to pass this short distance. Whereas double parking is seen in the main road which is taking out almost two lanes of
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Poster Paper Proc. of Int. Conf. on Advances in Civil Engineering 2012 road, rickshaws are not given proper road space. Following figure will best describe the scenario. A few side roads are connected to the main road increasing turning traffic which is creating congestion Car parking is allowed in the main road whereas rickshaws are not.
which has been already done (no parking provision), it can be minimized by adopting newer technology like underpinning. The markets should be given a fixed timeline (i.e. 2 years) to make their underground parking and then their impact on current road will be lessened. So, the proposed scheme is to force the existing markets to make their own parking zones within a fixed time limit and for the new developments, adequate parking and loading-unloading space should be there to minimize the impact of the developments in the existing road. Last but not the least, enforcement in all phases is a must need.
Fig. 6. Side roads connected to Mirpur road and double parking of cars whereas rickshaws do not get access in main road.
VII. SYNOPSIS OF FINDINGS Authority never thought about market induced car parking let alone loading-unloading which compromises the major portion in our country. As a result, cars are allowed to park in the main street causing obstacle to through traffic [Fig. 6]. Footpath is also filled up with different shops resulting unfriendly walking feature for pedestrians [Fig.4]. Pedestrian walk in the main road compromising their safety [Fig. 4&5]. Heterogeneous movement of traffic slows down the speed of vehicles [Fig. 4&5]. Loading-unloading of passengers take place in the mid of lane, sometimes in running vehicle [Fig. 5]. VIII. RECOMMENDATIONS
Fig. 7. Loading- unloading feature in upcoming BNBC
CONCLUSIONS Once a beautiful place of the city, a centre for urban people for passing time by watching a cinema and doing shopping is now lost. A totally unattractive scene now exists in the area. Without frontal access road or without rear end access facility and enough setbacks from the road, large developments on junction should not be permitted. Moreover, prior to any large development, Traffic Impact Assessment (TIA) should be carried out to check whether the new structure has any adverse effect on existing road or not. Finally, the concerned authority should be strict about enforcement of laws.
So, it has been seen that ignorance of parking provision, neglecting loading- unloading feature, no assessment prior to any large development near junctions lead to this deadlock scenario. In the draft parking policy proposed by Dhaka [1] Transport Coordination Authority (DTCA) only one line in the policy discusses about the necessity of taxi para-transit [5]. However, it is a positive sign that recent committee has proposed not to give any permission of commercial building [2] in junction [5]. Moreover, it suggests selected drop-off/pickup points for educational institutions. Unfortunately, these suggestions are made in the miscellaneous section of the policy not in the main part. Moreover, the upcoming correction [3] [4] of Bangladesh National Building Code (BNBC), 2010 has given emphasis on loading- unloading space. It includes loading- unloading feature which was absent in BNBC, 1993 [5] [6]. The proposed scheme can be shown in Fig. 7. All these proposals are positive signs. But the problems of the authority lie in the implementation phase. There should be enough enforcement. Without enforcements, education and [6] engineering are not complete. Besides, about the damage 181 © 2012 ACEE DOI: 02.AETACE.2012.3.14
REFERENCES Bangladesh Road Transport Authority (BRTA)>> Number of registered vehicles in Dhaka city. Available at http:// www.brta.gov.bd/index.php/statistics accessed on 1 August,2012 -11:44 PM. Development of Environmentally Sustainable Transport (EST) in Bangladesh, 2010. Available at www.uncrd.or.jp/env/5thregional-est.../BS1-2-1_Bangladesh.pdf accessed on 1 August, 2012- 8:00 PM. Banglapedia, the national encyclopedia of Bangladesh. Wikipedia available at http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/ New_Market,_Dhaka accessed on 20 September 2012, 7:00 PM Parking Policy proposed by Dhaka Transport Co-ordination Authority (DTCA). Available at http://www.dtcb.gov.bd/ ArchiveOfPoliciesandGuidanceDocuments.aspx accessed on 2 August, 2012-8:00 PM. Bangladesh National Building Code, 2010 (Draft), Part-3, Appendix-E, p.-18