'Control private vehicles to reduce city traffic jam'

Former Inspector General of Police Enamul Haque speaks at a roundtable on 'Controlling use of private vehicles: Necessity and duty' organised by Save the Environment Movement at the National Press Club in the city yesterday. PHOTO: STAR

They said the coordination between land use planning and transport planning is a must to improve the communication system in the capital.

Save Environment Movement (SEM) organised the roundtable on 'Controlling of Uses of Private Vehicles: Necessity and what to be done' at the Jatiya Press Club in the city with former inspector general of police Enamul Haque in the chair.

Project Director of WBB Trust, Buddhadeb Biswas, presented the keynote paper on the topic while SEM convenor Abu Naser Khan, additional executive officer of Dhaka Transport Coordination Board (DTCB) Engineer Saleh Uddin, Prof Sarwar Jahan and Sakil Bin Kashem of Bangladesh University of Engineering and Technology (BUET) took part in the discussion.

"The private vehicles carry only 8.73 percent of passengers using 34.41 percent of road network while the public vehicles carry 28.3 percent using only 6 percent of the network in the city," Buddhadeb said at his keynote paper quoting a DUTP statistics.

He said the main reason behind sufferings of the city people with traffic movement is unplanned transport management. The planners would have to work with more sincerity in removing the problem for the welfare of the people, he said.

The keynote speaker also suggested improving mass vehicles and train management to reduce pressures on the private vehicles so that the people can move easily.

He also said strictness should be followed during giving licenses to the private vehicle owners.

DTCB official engineer Saleh Uddin said the government has already prepared a strategic plan for 20 years to ease the traffic movement in the city.