Vehicles bound for Kazi Nazrul Islam Avenue used to get on to the left on the Panthapath road through the gap in the divider in front of Bashundhara shopping mall. But it has been closed since the beginning of Ramadan. Traffic authorities, however, left open a gap in front of the UTC tower. This too was closed off by security guards and community police working for the mall with ropes. The photos
were taken yesterday. Photo: Firoz Ahmed Inching through traffic in the capital's Russel Square, Sonia Ahmed hoped to take the left lane past Bashundhara City mall to reach her destination on Kazi Nazrul Islam Avenue, only to find the left lane closed with roadblocks and ropes. She got down from her car waiting at the traffic signal, and asked the police constable nearby why the lane was closed. Pointing at the shopping mall's exit, he said, "This is market's property, so they can explain why the blocks are there." When she argued that the road belongs to the government, the policeman grinned at her, and said, "It is true that the road is public property, but what can you do if someone else uses it?" Sonia had no choice but to wait for 14 minutes at the traffic signal and watch vehicles coming out of the mall use the left lane exclusively. Asked about it, Md Rajib Farhan, assistant commissioner (AC) of traffic in Tejgaon zone, said the traffic and market authorities had put up the blocks at the mall's exit to check congestion by shoppers' cars. He, however, said the gap in the road divider, separating the left lane from the right, near the UTC tower should be open. "Cars on the road can enter the left lane through the gap to go towards Kazi Nazrul Islam Avenue." "But vehicles coming out of the mall cannot use the gap to get on the road to the right. For that, they have to drive all the way up to Bijoy Sarani and take a u-turn," he said. In reality, the gap in front of the UTC tower was found closed around 3:00pm yesterday as it was on Friday and Thursday afternoon. Community policemen working for the mall authorities there were seen unfastening the ropes to allow one or two so-called VIP vehicles to get on to the right lane. Unlike Sonia, Shariful Islam found no blocks there. But he had to wait for 15 minutes on his motorbike at the gap to get on to the left lane. "Vehicles coming out of the market were trying to get on to the road through that gap and blocked the entire lane," he complained. The entire road from Green Road-Panthapath traffic signal to Sonargaon intersection get choked by vehicles and CNG-run auto-rickshaws, as shoppers in droves visit the Bashundhara City mall during Ramadan. As the mall's parking space gets filled up quickly, shoppers' cars are parked on the road opposite the market. Moreover, mall-bound vehicles often create two parallel lines on the left side of the road from Panthapath, blocking the Green Road-Panthapath intersection. In order to keep the roads clear, the 30 traffic police and ansars deployed from Green Road-Panthapath to Sonargaon intersection, often need to keep the red light on at the Green Road-Panthapath traffic signal. Farhan blamed the insufficient parking capacity of Bashundhara City mall for the traffic congestion on the road. He said the number of shoppers' cars had gone up during Ramadan. But the mall's parking space was reduced as it had rented out a large portion of its basements to Mustafa Mart. Besides, the mall uses an automatic ticketing system that allows only two vehicles to pass per minute. It slows down the vehicular movement inside the parking lot, creating a long queue of vehicles outside, Farhan said. "We had requested the market authority to use a manual system for this month to make vehicular movement faster, but they did not pay heed to it," he said. However, Md Abul Kalam, senior general manager (admin and security) of Bashundhara Group, claimed that the mall's parking space had not shrunk because of portions of its basements being rented out to Mustafa Mart. "We have a parking capacity for 800 vehicles. Usually, we accommodate 700 plus vehicles at a time, but during Ramadan the number goes up to 900 plus," he said. On automatic ticketing, Kalam said they did not want to miss out on the facilities of automation service by switching to a manual system.
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