Traffic control
DMP sits on digital cameras, display boards
The Dhaka Metropolitan Police is yet to start using its digital cameras and traffic display boards, an initiative taken four years back to streamline traffic and ease congestion on the city roads.
The telecom division of the DMP initiated the project in 1997 to improve the command, communication and control system monitor and control the flow of traffic in order to restore discipline in vehicular movement on the streets. The project, involving Tk 54 crore financed by the government, was finally approved in 2006.
Under the project, a total of 155 digital cameras have been set up at different road crossings and 31 traffic display boards at major points in the city. Besides, 1,500 handsets of digital walky-talky have been bought to maintain communications in the capital’s police department.
Most of the display boards, already set up, are either inoperative or give only a few instructions like ‘drive carefully’ and ‘follow the traffic rules’ which are of little use in disciplining the city traffic. Besides, there is no use of the cameras for years.
Different government measures like introduction of lane system and rescheduling the school time have failed miserably to ease traffic congestion which was a major election pledge of the ruling Awami League.
Commuters and drivers said they did not get any benefit of cameras and digital display boards in one year.
When asked why most of the display boards remain inoperative, YM Belalur Rahman, assistant inspector general of police (telecom), said, ‘Some display boards
remain non-functional due to disruption in power supply.’
He said, ‘Contractors themselves keep many boards inoperative as the system is yet to be launched formally.’
He claimed that everything would be alright with the launch of the system soon.
‘Apart from monitoring the traffic movement, the cameras will also be used to detect miscreants and oversee political activities,’ he said.
He said the digital cameras would send message to the central monitoring unit of the DMP through radio frequency for which five Base Transceiver Station towers, better known as BTS tower, had been set up at different points in the city.
‘The central monitoring unit will keep track of the flow of traffic and put suggestions on the display for the drivers. If a certain road is choked, the drivers will be asked to use alternative roads,’ Belalur Rahman said while giving the details of the project. ‘The display will also suggest a certain speed limit for the vehicles.’
‘The DMP have all along been maintaining its communication through back-dated analogue wireless system. With the introduction of the new system, they will be able to communicate through digital walky-talky,’ he said.
‘The police officials will be able to make one-to-one, one-to-group and one-to-all calls in the new system; such facilities are absent in the existing communications system of police.’
When asked when the system would start functioning, Belalur Rahman said, ‘The whole system has already been set up. We are now in the process of optimising it. We will hand over the system to the DMP soon for operation.’
In response to another question, he said, ‘We faced some difficulties soon after setting up the system when it started operation on a trial basis. Frequent power cuts interrupt the network. We have arranged alternative power supply for the system.’
‘Moreover, the radio frequency we use is also used by private entrepreneurs, which often hampers telecommunications. We are trying to overcome the problems…,’ he said.
The assistant inspector general of police said that the prime minister, Sheikh Hasina, would inaugurate the system hopefully by this year.
When asked why speed detectors had not been incorporated in the project, Belalur Rahman said, ‘Will it have any function while the average speed limit in the city is about 15 to 16 kilometres per hour?’
Lack of speed limit enforcement or speed monitoring system on the capital’s roads makes way for reckless driving and over-speeding, leading to fatal accidents.
Folec Communications (B) Sdn Bhd, a Brunei company of system integrator and specialised service provider for radio frequency and telecommunications infrastructure, was given the work to implement the project by 2009.
