Ineffective system threat to public life

The automatic traffic signal system in Rajshahi city has become almost ineffective posing a serious threat to the movement of public transport as well as pedestrians.
Passengers of different modes of public transport and pedestrians, especially school students, at various crossings and intersections like Kadirgonj, Gourhanga, Saheb Bazar Zero Point and Moni Chattar, Luxmipur and Bornali are more at risk.
According to the officials concerned, Rajshahi City Corporation (RCC) had established the signal system at 21 important points out of 30 at a cost of around Tk 1.5 crore in three phases since 1994. But, many of those are not being used at present due to various reasons.
Currently, traffic division of Rajshahi Metropolitan Police (RMP) has been managing the city's traffic manually causing indiscriminate traffic movement and huge congestion at different crossings and intersections especially ahead of Eid-ul-Fitr.
"Basically, we are now facing a huge problem in controlling traffic due to excessive mechanised and manual transports on the city streets alongside non-functioning automatic system," said Mahmudul Islam, inspector of RMP traffic division.
In this regard, he mentioned that initiative has been taken to re-establish the automatic system. He, however, favoured for an adequate public awareness regarding traffic rules and regulations for the sake of ensuring road safety.