Dhaka: Bangladesh has launched a crackdown on hundreds of rundown and unroadworthy vehicles as part of a desperate campaign to ease the capital's notorious traffic congestion alongside regulating vehicle movement in the city, officials and reports said here on Friday.
"The government has decided to evict 20-year-old buses and minibuses and over 25-year-old trucks and covered vans from the capital city," a communication ministry spokesman told Gulf News.
He added that 17 mobile teams led by magistrates and manned by police would be fielded from July 15 to enforce the ban on dilapidated automobiles as some 13,800 of them, mostly trucks, registered under the Dhaka Metropolitan area were more than 20 to 25 years old.
Diseases
The spokesman said in line with the decision of an inter-ministerial meeting with Communication Minister Syed Abul Hussain from now on trucks would be allowed inside the city for five hours from midnight while the previous timing was between 10pm and 6am.
The decision came two days after Bangladesh proclaimed an order to redesign the capital Dhaka requiring the reclamation of 3,000 acres of land occupied by influential real estate companies, dubbed "land pirates" under the Detailed Area Plan (DAP) for the capital to prevent flooding and ease traffic congestion in the city.
The New Age newspaper said the authorities have also readied two vehicle dumping yards on the city's outskirts as experts earlier said the deteriorating air quality exposed people to various diseases.
According to the Department of Environment, the density of airborne particulate matter reached 463 micrograms per cubic metre (mcm) in the city during December to March, the highest level in the world, earning Dhaka the reputation as being one of the worst polluted cities in the world.
Mexico City and Mumbai follow Dhaka with 383 and 360 mcm respectively, said the environment officials said.
The government recently opted for a metro rail system and elevated expressway after a series of abortive steps to put the city traffic in order.
According to a recent Roads and Highways report traffic jams halt traffic movement in the Bangladesh capital for 7.5 hours every day. Residents of Dhaka complained that tailbacks were becoming bigger every day while a government order resetting office timing, yielded little results to ease the situation.
