"Over one crore or one-tenth of the country's population now live in Dhaka city, which is higher than the total population of many countries. DCC area should be linked to Keraniganj, Kanchpur area, Savar and Gazipur intersection to resolve various problems facing the metropolitan city," he said at a 'Meet the Reporters' programme.

The mayor said the population of the capital city are increasing day by day and it is impossible for the city corporation to cope with the emerging situation with its present manpower and logistics support.

"The city-dwellers have been facing various problems such as traffic jam due to lack of adequate number of roads. A metropolitan city should have a minimum of 25 percent of its space for the roads for smooth traffic movement, but the figure for Dhaka city is only five percent," he said.

He stressed the need for building east-west roads in the capital and introducing sky rails to ease traffic congestion.

The Dhaka Reporters' Unity organised the programme at its auditorium in the city. DRU President M Shafiqul Karim, General Secretary Shahed Chowdhury and News Editor of the daily Karatoa Saiful Islam were also present.

The mayor blamed the Water and Sewerage Authority (Wasa) for waterlogging in different parts of the city, which is causing damage to roads.

He also said lack of adequate manpower and proper planning is an obstacle to keeping the city clean. "There should be at least three cleaners for every 1,000 people in a modern city."

"The DCC needs at least 20,000 cleaners and 600 dump tricks, but it has only 7,500 cleaners and 150 dump trucks," he said, adding that it is just impossible to solve the problems with so few resources.

The mayor also said that the DCC spends Tk 60 crore a month on cleaning up garbage, but the people pay only Tk 20 crore in holding tax.

However, the DCC is implementing a project in collaboration with the Japan International Cooperation Agency (Jica) to modernise the city's waste management system by 2015, he added.

The mayor also said he is trying to shift large wholesale kitchen markets such as Karwan Bazar kitchen markets to somewhere outside the city as they are causing a lot of suffering to the city dwellers.

He said he has personally talked with the government about the issue. "A wholesale kitchen market should not be located inside a VIP area," he added.

The city dwellers will have a better capital if four such kitchen markets can be set up outside the capital.