From the archive record
Kazi Nazrul Islam Avenue is a typical Dhakaian thoroughfare, which is to say, a snarl of trucks, cars, rickshaws and handcarts. The traffic here is so dense, so unending, that it has become detrimental to the city’s economic future and development. But it is traffic that has sealed Dhaka’s reputation among academics and development specialists as the great symbol of 21st-century urban dysfunction, the world’s most broken city. It has made Dhaka a surreal place, a town that is both frenetic and paralyzed and has altered the rhythms of daily life for its 17.5 million-plus residents. This particular road and many like this are always jam-packed due to the metro construction in progress which the Bangladeshi government has undertaken in collaboration with China. This footage is part of the bro