Many people have been deprived of the information of the much anticipated traffic radio channel because of lack strong advertising allege most drivers and commuters around the city.

A few drivers gathered near the Karwan Bazar mosque said they hardly heard the news of the channel broadcast on radio frequencies. With little advertising in newspapers, television and other methods, the facilities that this channel will offer to drivers remains unknown.

The channel is broadcast on 103.2 MHZ (megahertz) on the FM band in two shifts -7:30 am to 11:30 am and 3:30 pm to 7:30 pm daily, said sources from Bangladesh

Betar.

Bangladesh Betar's Additional Chief Engineer, Dilip Kumar Saha said: "We provide effective technical support to run the program. We find that workers and facilitators of the project are enthusiastic. Positive reports from as far as Gazipur and Kaliakoir are coming in."

The channel was officially launched on May 26 with Information minister M Shamsul Islam as chief guest at the inauguration. The function was held at the Bangladesh Betar's Sher-e-Bangla Nagar office.

Betar authorities said, the objective of the channel is to make drivers aware of the traffic rules and the points of traffic congestions and give information of any accidents.

But the channel does not transmit vital information -traffic congestion and road accidents.

Yellow taxicab driver Shahjahan said , "Radio traffic channel was supposed to ease traffic problems in the city. There was a huge traffic jam all around the city on May 29 especially in the Shahabagh area due to the problem at Dhaka University, but no news of the congestion was aired, instead songs were played and traffic rules indicated."

Another driver said both the presentation style and time of the programme should be changed. Traffic rules from outdated books should be updated.

Sources from Bangladesh Betar and Information Ministry said that in a recent meeting

held on this channel, a decision was made that facts on traffic congestion will not be aired at the moment.

The decision-makers feared that when commuters hear about a specific roads been congested, they will panic, will try to use other alternative routes and create even bigger jams. No alternative decision has yet been on when and how to air congestion information.

According to another Bangladesh Betar engineer there is a lack of equipment like high quality 'digital audio control' sound mixers, CD recorders, microphones and other related items. A studio to transmitter link (STL) dedicated only to transmit news to the exact destination is urgently required. Presently a mobile van link is used for this

purpose.

Dearth of manpower has been another major drawback, the engineer said. The Engineering section has not yet been given the manpower they needed.

Betar sources allege that traffic police does not fully cooperate, as two traffic sergeants or inspectors are expected to be at Bangladesh Betar station. A special radio control room has been set-up for the two law enforcing officers to receive information that can be transmitted on the channels, but none showed up.

When DC traffic (South) Ansar Uddin Khan Pathan, who was also present in the meeting on traffic radio channel, was contacted, he said: "We are waiting for a hot line to be set-up to send informa-

tion to Bangladesh Betar from our control room."

"There was no specification that two traffic sergeants had to be at Bangladesh Betar office. We have our own set-up from which information will be passed via telephone."

When asked why news of traffic congestion still not broadcast, Pathan said: "We are ready to send traffic information once in 10 minutes. We are just awaiting orders from the top level and concerned ministries. As soon as instructions are given, we are well equipped to transmit information regarding traffic congestion.”