PM orders tougher action against air crisis

Staff Reporter
Prime Minister Tarique Rahman on Saturday directed the authorities to step up efforts to curb air and noise pollution, ordering stricter enforcement against polluting vehicles, brick kilns and the excessive use of vehicle horns.

He issued the directives while chairing a meeting on environmental pollution at the Prime Minister’s Office.

According to a press release from the Prime Minister’s Press Wing, the meeting reviewed a range of measures to reduce air and noise pollution nationwide, with a particular focus on improving environmental conditions in Dhaka.

The Prime Minister instructed the authorities to take effective action against air pollution caused by brick kilns and stressed the adoption of environment-friendly technologies in brick production.

The meeting also discussed measures to tackle excessive vehicle horn use in the capital.

Tarique Rahman directed law enforcement agencies to strengthen enforcement against unnecessary honking and asked officials to explore the use of artificial intelligence (AI) to monitor horn use, similar to the AI-based traffic camera system being introduced for traffic management.

He also ordered the swift removal of unfit, expired and highly polluting buses, trucks and other vehicles from Dhaka’s roads.

To improve traffic management and ease congestion, the Prime Minister instructed the authorities to install automatic traffic signal systems at at least 50 more intersections in the capital as quickly as possible.

The meeting was attended by Environment, Forest and Climate Change Minister Abdul Awal Mintoo, State Minister Sheikh Faridul Islam, State Minister for Water Resources Farhad Hossain Azad, the Prime Minister’s Special Assistant on Environment, Forest and Climate Change Dr Saimum Parvez, Dhaka South City Corporation Administrator Md Abdus Salam, Dhaka North City Corporation Administrator Md Shafiqul Islam Khan, Dhaka Metropolitan Police Commissioner Mosleh Uddin Ahmed, Additional Commissioner (Traffic) Md Anisur Rahman, and senior officials from various ministries and agencies.