Ubiquitous parking responsible for perennial traffic gridlock
17 March 2023
Staff Reporter :
Ubiquitous parking responsible for perennial traffic gridlock daily in front of Hazrat Shahjalal International Airport (HSIA).
As a result, the air passengers have to get stuck in traffic for a long time to enter and exit the airport. Such perennial traffic gridlock was seen from morning to till the midnight. Due to the parking problem, this traffic gridlock extended on the Dhaka-Mymensingh Highway, including the airport areas, sources in the airport told this correspondent.
Mainly, this congestion is being created because of parking private cars, microbuses and other vehicles haphazardly. Hundreds of cars are allowed to park in front of Hazrat Shahjalal International Airport daily for money.
According to airport sources, a private car driver has to pay Tk 100 for the first 3 hours and Tk 30 for the remaining hours after the first three hours.
It is regular phenomenon that air passengers and common people have to suffer daily because of it.
Despite the biggest airport in the country there always various mismanagement in parking as the car parking area at Shahjalal Airport is controlled by the linemen of the leasing company.
At least 140 to 150 flights touched down and take off at the HSIA daily and the numbers of passengers are about 20,000-25,000. Apart from it, around 25,000-30,000 people have come to greet and farewell their passengers daily.
About 60 lakh people departed and arrived through the HSIA every year. On this occasion, a large trade is going on in various places, including parking.
According to sources, the car parking business at Dhaka's Hazrat Shahjalal International Airport is very lucrative and fees are being charged at the will of lessee without paying attention to the rules.
The employees of the lessee company often quarrel with the parking car owners and the driver as a powerful syndicate of the ruling party is behind the car parking trade, sources said. There have been allegations of misconduct against car parking staff.
Moreover, the airport car rental service is also very high as a passenger has to pay two to three times more than the normal fare depending on the destination from the airport.
Regarding traffic congestion at the airport, Deputy Commissioner of Police (Northern Division) Nabid Kamal Shaibal said that the road has become very narrow mainly due to development activities which major causes to take a bit longer to get in and out of the car.
The police are working to solve the traffic jam, he added.
Secretary of the Ministry of Civil Aviation and Tourism Mokammel Hossain said that now development work is going on at the airport and passengers are facing some problems with their movement. Instructions have been given to the authorities to solve these problems quickly, he said and hoped that these problems will be solved soon.
