President inaugurates ‘Male’ Fahi’ program aimed at alleviating congestion

President Dr. Mohamed Muizzu, on Wednesday night, has inaugurated ‘Male’ Fehi’ program as part of the government’s efforts to alleviate congestion in the Maldivian capital.

The program was inaugurated during a ceremony held at Dharubaaruge.

 It is an initiative of the Ministry of Transport and Civil Aviation at the direction of the President.

The program comprises of plans formulated with the recommendation of ‘Urban Traffic and Decongestion Management Committee’ established earlier to address the issue of congestion in Male. The Committee comprises of Transport Ministry, Maldives National Defense Force (MNDF), Maldives Police Service and Maldives Customs Service.

The program will be implemented in three phases. They are:

• Automobile registration through rules and regulations, limiting the number of vehicles
• Enhancing and developing public transportation facilities
• Making roadways safer, easier, and more tranquil for pedestrians

As part of this program, Male’ City Council has already commenced efforts to declare the limit of vehicle registration and the durability of registrations. As per the Transport Ministry, the law mandates the respective city council or the island council of the particular city or island to declare the limit for vehicle registration and the durability of registration.

However, the regulation has been not enforced to date as it was not up to a standard possible to implement it. Henceforth, the Ministry has amended the regulation following which it has been gazetted.

Transport Ministry also plans to bring an end to vehicle registration without the knowledge of the garage owner and the registration of garages for business purposes as part of efforts to alleviate congestion in Male’. In this regard, efforts are already underway to incept an integrated information system through which authorities can view spaces that have been registered as garages with Male’ City Council and spaces that have been registered for business purposes with the Economic Ministry.

Additionally, the Ministry has also decided to swap existing RTL buses to ones smaller in size that is ideal for the roads in Male’ and Hulhumale’ and increase the frequency of buses and ensure they operate according to schedule.

According to the transport Ministry, there are over 118,000 vehicles registered to the greater Male’ area. Meanwhile, 70 percent of all two-wheeled vehicles registered with the Ministry are registered to the Male’ area.

Authorities have undertaken efforts to alleviate congestion in Male’ area previously as well. These efforts included towing unused and broken vehicles in various areas.