April 04, 2008	Friday	Rabi-ul-Awwal 26, 1429

BANGKOK: The city of Bangkok on Thursday proposed a ban on parking lots at new downtown apartment blocks, hoping to ease the Thai capital’s notoriously bad traffic.

The city’s deputy governor, Panich Vikitsreth, said the ban would prohibit parking lots at new residential buildings and limit them at office buildings, in a bid to force people downtown to take public transport. “The idea is to reduce traffic jams in the central business district, because in this area we have plenty of public transport,” Panich said.

The ban would require approval from the Interior Ministry and the city council, he said.

Bangkok’s traffic is gridlocked for much of the working week, and hundreds of thousands of new cars take to the streets every year.

The city’s existing mass transit system has only three lines — two above ground, and one underground — but plans are under way for an ambitious expansion of the system, including a new rail link to the airport.—AFP