Bangladesh’s interim government chief adviser Professor Muhammad Yunus on Monday asked the police and experts in a meeting to find solutions for easing traffic congestion in the capital Dhaka.
The chief adviser gave the directive in a meeting with top police officials of Dhaka Metropolitan Police and two city traffic system experts from the Bangladesh University of Engineering and Technology, said a press release from the Chief Adviser’s Office.
Yunus ordered the DMP to find ‘some quick and effective solution’ to the traffic problem for Dhaka’s 20 million people.
‘We’ve to ease traffic congestion. We need to find a solution immediately,’ he said during the meeting at the State Guest House Jamuna in Dhaka.
Traffic police were asked to take up some pilot anti-congestion schemes, such as restricting bus stoppage time in smaller stations to less than two minutes in 2-3 key roads, and subsequently replicate them in other roads of the city.
The BUET experts have been asked to find some home-grown solutions with the help of their students in at least one traffic corridor. They were also asked to fix the signalling system by using local expertise.
Professor Moazzem Hossain of BUET, a transportation and traffic system expert, gave a presentation during the meeting.
He said the country loses at least Taka 40,000 crores annually in traffic congestion in Dhaka city alone, according to the release.
Kh Nazmul Hassan, additional commissioner, traffic, of the DMP, said the traffic situation had continued to improve in recent weeks after the deployment of more traffic policemen.
Full deployment is expected by the end of next week, he added.
Lieutenant General (retired) Abdul Hafiz, special assistant to the chief adviser, Md Hadiuzzaman, a civil engineering professor of BUET, and Faruk Ahmed, an additional commissioner of the DMP, also spoke during the meeting.