Mayor Atiqul Islam contemplates introducing a new plying system of vehicles having odd and even number plates if the Dhaka North City Corporation (DNCC) gets the onus of traffic management.
Vehicles with odd number plates will ply the streets on odd dates on the calendar and even numbers on even dates, according to the north city father.
He categorically says an effective traffic system will be introduced through studies of how many vehicles ply which roads.
It is, however, unclear whether the mayor's plan will be integrated with the south part of the city or executed in his jurisdiction only.
Under the plan, private vehicles carrying registration number ending an odd digit are allowed on streets on dates like 1, 3, 5, 7 and those with even numbers on dates like 2, 4, 6 and 8.
This system of vehicular movement, the mayor believes, will help reduce air pollution, fuel consumption alongside congestion.
On Saturday, journalists sought clarification of the mayor's earlier comment on the matter as he inaugurated Bangabandhu Mancha (platform) on the west of Rabindra Sarani in Uttara sector-07.
Journalists shot a question at him at a programme at Dhaka Reporters' Unity on March 16 regarding his possible steps to ease congestion in the city.
Everything is in the planning stage and will be applied based on research, DNCC public relations officer Mokbul Hossain quotes the mayor as saying.
The mayor said DNCC did not have the responsibility of traffic management system but would take steps after research once given the task.
The odd and even number plate system traffic management has been introduced in polluted cities like Delhi, China and Italy in recent years.
The Unites States also used the rationing system of vehicles to manage fuel during 1979 and 2012 during the Iraq-Iran war and hurricane.
Transport expert Moazzem Hossain, however, disagrees to Mr Atiq's plan, saying that odd and even number system is one of various components to manage traffic congestion in a city.
The system can click only if people have alternatives, for example, standard public transport and pavements so that they skip using their cars for a day.
The civil engineering professor at Bangladesh University of Engineering and Technology agrees to the demand of giving the traffic system under city corporation which is an elected local government body.
