Dhaka, Bangladesh (BBN) – A special drive is launched in the capital, Dhaka on Sunday to rid the city-dwellers of severe traffic congestion during the holy month of Ramadan, officials said.

Dhaka Metropolitan Police (DMP) conducted the operation from eight zones in the capital through mobile courts.

Additional Secretary of the Communications Ministry Shafique Alam Mehedi and DMP Commissioner AKM Shahidul Haq inaugurated the operation in Dhaka afterwards a meeting of a 12-member committee formed earlier to supervise the drive through separate mobile courts.

“The drive will be continued during the holy month of Ramadan to tackle Dhaka’s traffic jam,” Mr. Mehdi said, adding that the coordination committee would submit recommendations for long-term, mid-term and short-term policy to the government to solve the traffic jam in Dhaka.

Mr. Mehdi, who is also head of the committee, said the committee will coordinate the activities of the departments concerned and agencies having a connection to traffic issues.

Beside, the state-run Bangladesh Road Transport Authority (BRTA) has started a separate drive to improve the traffic situation in the capital, a BRTA director said.

As part of the drive, a mobile court, assigned to tackle the city’s traffic jam, hauled six motorized vehicles and fined 10 others in the capital’s Tejgaon area on Sunday.

“Another mobile court is expected to join Monday to improve the traffic situation in Dhaka,” Director Enforcement of the BRTA Tapan Kumar said.

He blamed inadequate roads and inclusion of new vehicles with the old ones for the nagging traffic cognation in the city. “A total of 150 new vehicles get permission to ply on the city road each working day,” he added.

The experts however found that inclusion of new vehicles, lack of adequate manpower, faulty automatic signal and tendency to disobey traffic rules are the main causes of traffic jam in the capital, Dhaka.

BBN/SS/SI/AD-24August09-1:10 am (BST)