Traffic Jam and Metro Rail in Dhaka: The Struggle of City Life

Hello dear friends,
I hope you all are doing well and spending a beautiful life with your loved ones. I wish you all happiness and peace.

Dhaka city is actually a small city, but inside it millions of people live in a very congested way. Every day, hundreds of thousands of vehicles move around the city, and most of them do not even follow traffic rules. Drivers rush as they wish, and pedestrians also face the same chaos. Because of this, traffic jam has become an invisible curse for the people of Dhaka. Sometimes it takes more than an hour to travel a road that should take only five minutes.

Whether it is the main road or the small lanes, traffic jam is everywhere in Dhaka. As a result, half of the daily life of city people seems to be wasted just by sitting in traffic. Office workers, students, patients, or ordinary citizens—everyone is suffering from this reality.

The government has taken many steps at different times to reduce traffic congestion. Several flyovers have been built in different parts of Dhaka. These gave a little benefit, but the main problem was not solved. The number of vehicles is increasing day by day, and at the same time, people’s tendency to break traffic rules is also increasing. So, even with flyovers, traffic jams remain the same.

Then came the much-awaited Metro Rail. As a modern transport system, people of Dhaka welcomed it with great hope. It is true that traveling by metro saves a lot of time. Earlier, people had to sit for hours in traffic, but now they can reach their destination within minutes.

But here also a new problem has started. To ride the metro, people have to stand in a long queue to buy tickets. Many times, it takes 20 to 30 minutes just to get one ticket. Sometimes people wait even more than an hour in line. Because of this, the promise of saving time is not really fulfilled.

I also faced this problem recently. I was going from Paltan to Kawran Bazar by metro. When I reached the station, I saw a huge line. After waiting for about 20 minutes, I finally got my ticket. But many people before me had been waiting for more than an hour. The most frustrating part is that many ticket machines are often out of order, and sometimes tickets are not even available. This makes the suffering of passengers even worse.

The main problem here is poor management. The government has spent a huge amount of money to build the modern metro system, but the ticket management is still not well organized. If people have to wait for hours just to buy tickets, then the main benefit of the metro is lost.

My humble request to the authorities is to solve this problem quickly. The ticket machines must always be active. The number of counters should be increased, and online ticket systems should be made easier and more effective. If the ticket process becomes smooth, then people can really enjoy the benefits of the metro.

Metro Rail is definitely a great achievement to reduce Dhaka’s traffic jam. But without proper management, this initiative may also turn into frustration for the people. Now is the time for the authorities to take real responsibility. Only then will the people of Dhaka save valuable time and get relief from at least some of the traffic suffering.