People urged to observe World Car Free Day tomorrow

Government officials, academicians and rights activists on Tuesday urged people to observe the World Car Free Day on September 22 to ease traffic congestion and environmental pollution.
This year for the first time the government will observe the day on Thursday, September 22, symbolically only in Dhaka, working with 44 non-government organisations.
At a discussion, they also said if there were safe and proper facilities, car owners would be encouraged to use public transports and footpaths.
The discussion was organised by the World Car Free Day Observation Committee, at the national press club.
Though NGOs started to observe the day since 2006 in Bangladesh, this year the day will be observed at a portion (north side) on Manik Mia Avenue between 10am and 1pm on Thursday.
The common goal of the world car free day is to reduce the number of cars on the streets.
While presenting the keynote paper, roads and highways department executive engineer Noor-E-Alam said in recent years the number of private car have increased creating traffic congestion, accidents and air and noise pollution.
The annual traffic congestion induced loss to Dhaka city was approximately US$2 billion while out of a total accidents, 23 per cent occurred in urban areas in Bangladesh, he said.
The committee convener and additional executive director of Dhaka Transport Coordination Authority AKM Myn Uddin Ahmed said many initiatives had been taken in Dhaka to manage traffic, which were not properly implemented.
He said that if there were facilities for comfortable and safe public transport all people, including car owners, would avail them.
DTCA director administration Nurul Amin said if there was enough security, people would be encouraged to use footpaths and public transports.
BUET’s urban and regional planning department teacher Musleh Uddin Hasan said the capital’s transport sector was not developed with proper planning.
Work for a Better Bangladesh Trust executive director Saifuddin Ahmed said decentralisation of the urban facilities was important to ease traffic problems.
Dhaka Metropolitan Police additional deputy police commissioner (traffic) Md Saiful Haque said most of the traffic police suffered from different diseases while during duty they also became victim of accidents.
Save The Environment chairman Abu Naser Khan said town and transport planners were very important components for managing traffic in Dhaka.
Discussants also said political and administrative action were necessary to control cars.
On the day, different programmes including sports, quiz and art completions will be held while road transport bridges minister Obaidul Quader will be present on the occasion.
The discussion was chaired by DTCA executive director (acting) Zakir Hossain Majumder and attended by, among others, Clean Air and Sustainable Environment project director Anisur Rahman, DTCA transport engineer Md Nasir Uddin Tarafder, and Bangladesh Road Transport Authority deputy director Sk. Md. Mahbub-E-Rabbani.

News courtesy: www.newagebd.net