Answer:

Bangladesh is a very densely populated low lying country with 123 million inhabitants living in an area of 147 570 sq. km. Dhaka, the capital city of Bangladesh, has a population of over 10 million with a growth rate of 8% per annum. Road transport plays an important role in Bangladesh. It has achieved a significant growth in the road transport sector over the past twenty years. Presently the length of roads is about 271,000 kilometers (km), including about 21,000 km of major roads; 2,835 route km of railways; 3,800 km of perennial waterways (which increases to 6,000 km during the monsoon) and the ports of Mongla and Chittagong; and three international airports (Dhaka, Chittagong and Sylhet) and eight domestic airports . Road transport has turned out to be the most dominant mode in carriage of passenger and freight traffic in recent years. The number of registered motor vehicles on road increased steadily by 62% over the last decade from 3 39 448 in 1990 to 5 51 011 in 2000. The motor vehicle composition on roads is characterized as MOTORCYCLES 46%,motor cars 14%; trucks 12%; baby taxis 12%;buses/minibuses 9%, and others 7%. Despite phenomenal growth in the number of motor vehicles the country’s transport demand is still predominantly met by non-motorized modes, particularly rickshaws and its level of motorization is far below the levels in other Asian countries . The present number of rickshaws in Bangladesh could be in the order of 8 00 000. To cater to the growing demand of road transport, the major road network (national highways, REGIONAL roads and feeder roads) increased from 14 949 km to 21 174 km in 2000. Pedestrians are involved in about 70% of road accidents.

Approximately 1.3 million people die each year and NEARLY 3,500 people die on the world’s roads every day. Tens of millions of people are injured or disabled every year and between 20 and 50 million sustain non-fatal injuries. The Global status report on road safety is the first broad assessment of the road safety situation in 178 countries, USING data drawn from a standardized survey. The results show that road traffic injuries remain an important public health problem, particularly for low-income and middle-income countries. Pedestrians, cyclists and motorcyclists make up almost half of those killed on the roads, highlighting the need for these road users to be given more attention in road safety program .

Traffic jam always poses NEGATIVE externality upon the society. It poses severe threat to the economy as well as to the environment. In 1997, the annual country wise Economic Wastage occasioned by Traffic jam was $75 million. Since Dhaka City has large share of the total vehicles of the whole country, we can say that most of this jam occurred in Dhaka. And now, in the year of 2014, the wastage will be definitely higher; because the vehicles of this city, not the roads, are increasing significantly each year.