The iftar sellers will have to display their items inside their shops during the whole month to keep the space in front of the hotels and restaurants for smooth vehicular movement.

This was decided at a meeting of the home ministry on traffic management during the Ramadan and Durga Puja in the city yesterday with State Minister Lutfozzaman Babar in the chair.

The meeting asked the communications ministry, Dhaka City Corporation and other departments concerned to stop road digging during the Ramadan and repair the rundown roads, especially the lanes and bi-lanes used by rickshaws.

Babar ordered senior officials of the traffic department of Dhaka Metropolitan Police (DMP) to remain on the street during the day to ensure smooth traffic movement and do their official work during the night, if necessary.

"Dhaka is a metropolis of about 1.5 crore people but we have only six percent spaces for roads for such a huge population. Besides, twenty trains pass through the city halting traffic for about four hours everyday," Babar told reporters emerging out of the meeting on traffic congestion.

To ensure smooth vehicular movement, a traffic month begins from September 20 and will continue till the Eid-ul-Fitr.

Traffic police will be given 200 new motorbikes while members of the Rapid Action Battalion (Rab) will get 50 motorbikes soon for patrolling in the city, said meeting sources.

Beside Ansar members, 600 community policemen will also work with the traffic police during the period.

Babar asked the officials to focus especially on traffic congestions at Savar EPZ, Gazipur and Kanchpur.

To stop mugging during the period, the meeting also instructed the law enforcers to seize about 13,000 unlicensed CNG-run autorickshaws and cabs.

The home ministry and Bangladesh Road Transport Authority will work together to seize the vehicles used mostly for snatching across the capital and its outskirts, sources added.