Restriction on cars mulled for city
“Private cars with less than four or five passengers will not be allowed to ply the city streets,” Finance Minister AMA Muhith told reporters at his Secretariat office yesterday.
The minister said the government is thinking about restricting private cars to make public transport system more efficient. But he did not say when this decision would come into effect.
He admitted the government's failure in controlling the traffic situation in Dhaka.
Former director of UN ESCAP and a transport expert Dr Rahamatullah welcomed the government move but not without reservations.
“It [restriction] is very much in system. But you cannot do it unless you develop your public transport system,” he said.
He opposed the disallowing of cars on streets carrying less than four to five passengers. “You can impose penalties instead of stopping cars,” he said. The restriction should be imposed on certain areas, not on all roads, he added.
He cited examples of Bangkok, Singapore and the US. In Singapore, a car with four passengers does not have to pay congestion charge while in the US a car with more than two passengers is allowed to use the carpool lane. Bangkok encourages carpooling too.
He suggested that the government introduces luxury air-conditioned bus services, like Bangkok has done, to get the wealthy more interested in using public transport.
Not letting cars on Dhaka streets, unless it is packed with passengers, could be a first. Many cities impose hefty fees on vehicles jamming up city centres but they are never prevented from plying.
In London a stiff congestion charge is levied on private vehicles for using roads in certain parts of the British capital. Almost all major cities in Europe, the US and Asia apply some kind of similar restrictions.
The Delhi High Court in early 2010 made a decisive intervention into regulating movement of vehicles in the Indian capital. The court suggested imposition of congestion fee on cars entering certain parts of the city to reduce severe traffic congestion .
Meanwhile, Muhith said the cabinet approved a proposal to buy 255 buses to make the public transport system more effective. The buses will be purchased from Korea at Tk 212 crore for the state-run Bangladesh Road Transport Corporation.
He criticised the public transport operators saying that the way they are running now cannot be called public transport. “A few people are creating anarchy in the sector and looting public money,” he said.
Dhaka, the capital city of Bangladesh, has got numerous problems. But the most irritating one is the ever-increasing travel-time due to clogging up of roads by vehicles. Quite often, vehicles need to wait for half an hour or more at a single set of lights.
Even though the government assumed power promising to ease traffic congestions, the city dwellers have not seen any significant progress in two years.
Muhith said, “Traffic jam is the biggest allegation against this government and the other allegations raised by the opposition BNP are bogus and baseless."
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