Bangladesh has launched its first artificial intelligence-powered traffic enforcement system in Dhaka, connecting the capital’s existing network of traffic monitoring cameras to software capable of automatically detecting violations and issuing fines without requiring direct police intervention. In April, Dhaka police linked traffic cameras to artificial intelligence software designed to automatically detect violations, with city police spokesman NM Nasiruddin confirming that the system uses existing traffic-monitoring camera feeds with software identifying offences ranging from signal and lane violations to illegal parking. The development marks a significant shift in how one of the world’s most congested cities attempts to manage its roads, replacing a system that has relied almost entirely on manual enforcement for decades, with all the confrontations, inconsistencies, and physical risks to officers that such a model entails.
The scale of Dhaka’s traffic problem is difficult to overstate. One study by the United States National Bureau of Economic Research ranked Dhaka as the slowest city in the world, with an average speed of just 4.8 kilometres per hour according to a World Bank and Bangladesh University of Engineering and Technology study, making it quicker to walk than to drive across the city. Against this backdrop, Dhaka’s traffic sergeant SM Nazim Uddin told AFP that those who violate the rules have historically turned against officers, but that since artificial intelligence was introduced, people behind the wheel have started obeying the law and officers have been spared the everyday confrontations that made manual enforcement physically dangerous. The human dimension of the technology’s impact was illustrated by the experience of motorist Hannan Rahman Jibon, who ran a red light and found that the owner of the vehicle, sitting at home, received an automatic text message notification of the violation along with a fine of 2,000 taka.
Inside a control room at police headquarters, analyst Sharmin Afroze monitored a bank of live traffic feeds connected to the artificial intelligence system, where violations flagged by the software are checked by human operators before enforcement action is taken, with the system recording nearly 800 traffic violations in a single day. Police say they have prosecuted at least 300 vehicles since the system went live, while currently only fining the most serious offenders and issuing warnings to others as the system beds in. Officials have acknowledged that the technology faces practical challenges, including number plates that are blurred or too small for the system to read accurately, an issue being addressed in coordination with the road transport authority. The system currently targets motor vehicles only, and authorities are still working out how to regulate Dhaka’s vast fleet of pedal rickshaws, which form a central and defining part of the city’s traffic landscape. Hasib Mohammed Ahsan, a professor at Bangladesh University of Engineering and Technology, cautioned that the long-term success of the system would depend less on technology and more on whether authorities consistently enforce the rules, noting that previous investments in traffic signals and upgrades were never sustained and that a lack of consistency in planning and accountability for failure has repeatedly undermined similar efforts.
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