The plan also includes shifting railway lines out of the city and improving the traffic system.

"The plan will be implemented in phases and we hope these steps will minimize the present congestion," said a DTCB official. "The transport system has really turned chaotic because of lack of proper infrastructure. If no action is taken immediately the capital may turn into a dead city within the next ten years," he added.

The Strategic Transport Plan (STP) which will span 20 years was initiated by the DTCB in March to conduct a comprehensive study on a methodical transport system and is scheduled to be completed by March 2005. Sixty percent of the plan has already been worked on which includes the immediate action plan; others still lie on paper.

"The city has not been developed according to any plan. The future of Dhaka has not been considered in the construction of roads and for the first time we will bring out a transport model for the city," said Shahinuzzaman Arun, a DCTB engineer.

The construction of a kilometre long tunnel from Shaheed Jahangir gate to Agargaon was a suggestion of the STP. This is expected to ease the traffic congestion from Mohakhali along Kazi Nazrul Islam Avenue in front of the prime minister's office.

Construction of the long awaited and much talked about Panthapath-Sonargaon-Rampura road, improvement of the Uttara-Ashulia-EPZ-Chandra road, construction of the Zia Colony-Mirpur Road, rebuilding of the road stretching from Mirpur Ansar Camp to Kachukhet and the construction of Mirpur-2 to Agargaon have been given priority.

According to the plan, four other roads will be constructed from Mohammadpur bus stand to west flood protection embankment, Ring road to Mohammadpur bus stand, Hazaribagh to west flood protection embankment and from Bijoy Sarani to Tongi diversion road, to ensure the smooth flow of traffic.

Suggestions for an underground metro, elevated expressway and sky train have been incorporated in the DTCB's action plan, which proposes the construction of eight more flyovers by 2020 to ease traffic congestion.

The flyovers are proposed at the Hotel Sonargaon, Banglamotor, Moghbazar, Mouchak, Malibagh, Kakrail, Airport and Pragati Sarani intersections.

The plan has within the proposals, the construction of three multi-storey car parks at Dilkusha, Motijheel and Karwan Bazar. Presently, Dhaka City Corporation (DCC) is constructing the parking facility at Motijheel while Sadharan Bima is constructing another at Dilkusha.

The plan proposes 200 bus stops, an eastern bypass, two more bridges on the Buriganga river, construction of link roads with newly developed outskirts and three truck terminals, while emphasising on the improvement of the traffic signal system, construction of the Jatrabari flyover and feeder roads with circular waterways.

DTCB officials said making an action plan is easy but when the authorities start implementation many problems arise. "It will not be possible to implement all the plans in a day because of the many factors involved," said an insider.