As the volume of vehicular traffic keeps growing in Sylhet city, the traffic authorities are facing much trouble with efficient traffic control as the city still lacks digitised traffic lights.
An automated traffic signal system was set up in the city in 1996-97 – when Sylhet was still a municipality. Yet, the primary tools that traffic police in Sylhet still use are whistles, sticks and hand gestures.
“We will look into the matter after the budget is announced,” said Ariful Haque Choudhury, mayor of Sylhet City Corporation who took charge of office on September 18 last year.
The city corporation’s budget will be announced on August 22, the mayor said.
Primarily, digital lights were set up at seven points of the city – Surma Market, Chouhatta, Rekabi Bazar, Naiorpul, Amberkhana, Nayasorok and Kazitola Point – at the cost of Tk30 lakh, according to sources.
Installed under the supervision of the local government engineering department, the lights all went out of order after a year, allegedly because the contractor had used low-quality equipment.
The city corporation allocated Tk5 crore to restore the entire system in five fiscal years – 2007-08 to 2013-14 – but no work has been done in this regard.
Nikulin Chakma, deputy commissioner (traffic) at Sylhet Metropolitan Police, said traffic police had to direct traffic manually because many drivers did not follow the traffic rules properly and keep changing the lanes.
“We are facing acute problems with traffic management every day, which could be solved if there were digital signals. If the city corporation takes initiatives in this regard, we will help,” he said.
Noor Azizur Rahman, acting chief engineer at the city corporation, acknowledged that the digital lights were out of service due to the lack of proper maintenance, but he claimed that change in the alignment of the city’s streets was the main reason behind it.
He said: “Implementing any project depends on government allocation. If we get the allocation, we can implement any project, otherwise not. It is not possible to manage vehicular movement in the city without digital signals. We are going to adopt a new plan in this regard.”
Badar Uddin Ahmed Kamran, former Sylhet mayor, said digital traffic lights were set up when Sylhet was still a municipality, but the system could not be restored due to lack of adequate fund.
Incumbent mayor Ariful Haque Choudhury submitted a 10-point proposal to Finance Minister AMA Muhith for the city’s development, in which digital traffic lights have been mentioned, according to sources.