Governments worsened traffic situation beyond liveable standards: Minister Ameen

Traffic congestion in the Malé area became unbearable due to the action of previous government, said Transport and Civil Aviation Minister Mohamed Ameen.

In a post he made on X (formerly Twitter), the minister said that everyone is aware that the previous government had violated the regulations in issuing garage letters and [allowing] the use of unregistered vehicles [which] left the roads of Malé and Hulhumalé to become a dump.

There is no easy solution for this, but action needs to be taken for the benefit of the people, he said.

"[I] thank the support received by the public. [A]nd I hope the authorities and public will work together to find a solution to this problem," he said.

Ameen's comments come after authorities towed a significant number of race cars from the parking zone of Hulhumalé's Central Park. Images from the site show many of the vehicles were registered to the B-zone, which means the vehicles are only authorised to be driven in the north and south of the country, and not in the Malé zone.

Since Ameen took over as Transport Minister, the process of registering vehicles has been made very strict.

Following the recent accident near Vinares flat involving a speeding race car and a motorcyclist sitting on his vehicle on the side of the road, many have started raising concerns about road safety.

The government has also recently inaugurated a plan to limit the number of vehicles and change the traffic situation in the Malé area.