Severe traffic congestion cripple major roads of Jashore municipality everyday chewing up valuable workhours of its 300,000 residents.
Jashore Municipality has been holding ‘first-class’ status for 53 years, yet promised urban services and proper management remain largely absent in the 14.72-square-kilometre town.
Unregulated movement of easy bikes, battery-run auto-rickshaws and haphazard parking have become the biggest headaches for residents, but authorities appear indifferent.
Locals say that occasional drives are carried out to restore order on roads, but they do nothing to address the root of the crisis.
According to the municipality’s licensing department, Jashore has only 4,452 registered easy bikes and 2,893 rickshaws.
However, in reality, more than double that number operate freely on municipal roads. Citizens blame the chaos on the municipality’s weak monitoring and failure to remove illegal vehicles.
Zillur Rahman Vitu, member secretary of the Municipal Citizens’ Committee, said the number of auto-rickshaws and easy bikes on the streets far exceeds the town’s capacity, and neither the municipality nor the traffic police can regulate them.
“Traffic congestion has become a festering wound in this first-class municipality,” he said adding “If authorities fail to act quickly, the situation will only worsen.”
Alamgir Hossain from Ghop Nawapara said, “The traffic jams we used to see in Dhaka have now come to Jashore. Every morning the Doratana area gets clogged. Sometimes it feels like I’m stuck in Dhaka itself.”
College student Riyad Hossain said commuting has become a daily battle. “Exam days are the worst. We often reach college late because of the gridlock. Authorities must take strict measures.”
Unplanned parking is another major contributor. Zillur Rahman added that many commercial and multi-storey buildings lack designated parking areas, which forces vehicles to occupy roads and footpaths.
Jashore Municipality’s chief executive officer, Syed Murad Ali, said the crisis cannot be solved without joint efforts.
“Previous administrations issued more licences for easy bikes and auto-rickshaws than the town can handle. Regulating them now is difficult,” he said.
He added that regular drives are underway to ease congestion and clear footpaths.
