Minister of Minister of Transport and Civil Aviation Mohamed says more than 69,000 vehicles have been registered in the Maldives in the last five years and the trend indicates that some of the registrations were made illegally.
Speaking at a press conference held today, Minister Ameen said that the traffic congestion in the greater male' area is of great concern to the public and the government and that the issue must be resolved.
Ameen said right now the new administration is working to form a tactical plan to tackle the issue and that this includes forming a short-term plan that would give an immediate respite to the problem.
Minister Ameen said that the short-term plan would try to reduce the number of vehicles being registered in the Greater Male' Area as all believe the number should be reduced to mitigate the traffic congestion issue.
He detailed that in the last five years a total of 69,780 land vehicles have been registered across the country and that out of this more than 42,000 land vehicles have been registered in the Greater Male' area.
He said that such numbers could not be reached if all these vehicles were registered as per the laws and regulations set by the authorities.
Minister Ameen warned that if this trend continues like this, the authorities would lose control over the Greater Male' Area. He assured that small changes brought to the services offered by the Ministry have now slowed this trend.
The Minister also announced that the Ministry would be signing an agreement to get professional expertise to resolve the traffic congestion issue in the Greater Male' area and that this would be backed by international funding.
Minister Ameen further stated that the Ministry have held discussions with the Foreign Ministry to seek assistance through bilateral relations formed with other countries to get expert advice from developed countries like the UAE and Singapore on resolving the traffic congestion issue.
