DHAKA, Feb 9: A World Bank-funded project will help 20,000 cycle-rickshaw operators find new jobs to reduce chronic traffic congestion in the Bangladeshi capital Dhaka, officials said on Wednesday.

The 4.5 million dollar rehabilitation programme, due to be launched in April, will offer rickshaw cyclists technical training or the chance to take a small loan to set up a business.

"The rickshaw pullers are going to receive technical training in light engineering or in taxi or auto rickshaw driving," said programme coordinator Helaluddin Nagri of the Dhaka Transport Coordination Board.

Anyone taking part in the programme would have to move away from the city, he added.

Dhaka is afflicted by massive traffic congestion aggravated by thousands of slow-moving cycle rickshaws which constantly weave in and out of traffic on main thoroughfares.

Business leaders say the congestion costs the economy millions of year. The government has barred rickshaws from two of the city's main thoroughfares and plans to extend the ban to all eight by 2007. But it has said it will not ban cycle rickshaws completely as the job is a lifeline for thousands who come to the capital each year to escape extreme poverty in the countryside.-AFP