Bangkok governor Chadchart Sittipunt aims to ease traffic congestion in Bangkok within one year.

He plans to introduce an intelligent traffic management system and will set up a group to study the possibility of introducing it by next summer.

Mr Chadchart said the  group will consist mainly of officials from the Bangkok Metropolitan Administration (BMA), the Traffic Police Division (TPD) and the Ministry of Transport.

A joint traffic command centre already exists at the TPD's headquarters but it cannot respond well enough to handle the city's traffic problems, Mr Chadchart said.

BMA officials will be transferred to work at the centre to coordinate efforts in the event of floods, trees downed by storms and similar incidents, which are the responsibility of the BMA, he said.

In the case of a broken BMTA bus blocking traffic, the BMA will promptly coordinate its removal from traffic lanes, he said.

Executives of the BMA and TPD will now meet once a month to review their efforts to improve Bangkok's traffic woes and discuss future measures.

Only about 100 of more than 50,000 security cameras operated by the BMA are being used for traffic management purposes, Mr Chadchart said.

He believes one of the key factors hindering the improvement of Bangkok's traffic management is that the traffic flow at major intersections is still manually controlled by traffic police who are not updated on traffic conditions in connected areas.