We are happy to see that the Roads and Highways Department (RHD) has taken steps to remove illegal structures and wrongfully parked lorries on one portion of the Jatrabari-Kanchpur highway after we ran a story on the issue on November 7. Our investigation had found that major portions of the eight lane highway that is used as a “corridor” for a very large number of vehicles from Chittagong and Sylhet to enter and exit the city had narrowed to 4-lanes at certain points because of haphazard parking by heavy vehicles. This remains a problem for most major highways where makeshift structures like garages come up and truck owners take it upon themselves to turn certain areas into private parking spaces.
While we certainly applaud the action taken by RHD to free up the space, a long term solution has to be sought. With thousands of heavy load carriers plying the route, it has become imperative that dedicated parking spaces be built along major highways such as this. It is not possible for the government or truckers to bear the major expenditure alone. Financial allocations need to be made by the authorities to develop sites that will cater not only for parking spaces, rather investments should be made to develop points along the highways where these vehicles can be parked and which will provide facilities for the maintenance of vehicles along with rest and recreation for drivers and helpers. Cost can be recouped by charging fees for facilities used. Only then can authorities successfully penalise errant truckers for breaking the law and drives such as the one conducted by RHD recently hope to be successful.