Kabul Traffic Management Department, which fell under the Ministry of Interior (MoI), was on Monday handed over to the Kabul Municipality. 

Kabul Municipality officials said they will focus on drawing up a traffic management plan for Kabul city.  

According to officials, Kabul city streets were designed to cope with only 40,000 vehicles but currently at least 500,000 vehicles use the city’s roads daily.

“We will work on traffic regulations and will send a new outline to parliament to close the current gaps in the law,” Kabul’s acting mayor Abdullah Habibzai said. 

The interior ministry meanwhile said handing over the Kabul traffic management department to Kabul municipality will benefit the people. 

“According to the law of officers and police, Kabul Traffic Management Department officials will continue to carry out their responsibilities, only the management of this has been handed over to the municipality,” interior acting minister Wais Ahmad Barmak said. 

A joint board from the interior ministry and the municipality, under the leadership of Kabul’s acting mayor, will manage Kabul’s traffic.

If the plan works, then it will be implemented in provinces to resolve traffic issues in other cities. 

The Minister of Urban Development Sayed Sadat Mansoor Naderi meanwhile said the move to hand over Kabul traffic management services to the municipality will help improve the traffic problem.

“Our aim is to offer better services to our people,” said Naderi. 

According to the urban development ministry, 75 percent of Kabul city has not been built in accordance with urban planning standards.  

The ministry’s engineers said Kabul city needs a public transport system including a metro line.  

Kabul residents however said the municipality does not have the capability to resolve the traffic problems.  

“The municipality cannot even gather and remove garbage from Kabul city, so how will it be able to resolve the massive traffic problems,” Kabul resident Sabir asked.