Devices to combat Dhaka gridlock work well

Traffic police and city corporation officials have expressed satisfaction at the ‘effectiveness’ of signal timing countdown system installed in Dhaka to reduce vehicular congestions. They monitored functioning of the system in Shahbagh area from 4pm to 6pm on Sunday. During the monitoring, the roads around Shahbagh witness less traffic jam than any other day. Dhaka Metropolitan Police’s Traffic Division Deputy Commissioner (South) Khan Mohammad Rezwan said: ‘Primarily, it seems that the signal timing countdown system will work for easing traffic congestion. And there will be opportunity to fix things if there is any glitch,’ he said. Rezwan said Dhaka City Corporation (DCC) would oversee the system and police would control the traffic going by the system. DCC (South) Assistant Engineer Touhid Ibn Akram said the devices had been installed after studying the movement of traffic at every point. He said these devices would stop whenever VIPs travel through a specific area and resume after they pass. Traffic signal timing countdown devices have been installed at 65 points in the city at a cost of Tk 150 million under a project ‘Clean and Sustainable Environment’. The traffic authorities would bring the entire city under the system in next 2 years, according to a news agency.