Measures to enforce seatbelts for car drivers, helmets for motorcyclists
The communication has decided to launch a crackdown on illegal establishments along the country’s major highways and strictly enforce safety rules like buckling seat-belts for the car drivers and wearing helmets for motorcycle riders.
The decisions were taken at a meeting of the National Road Transport Advisory Council at the communication ministry on Tuesday to ease traffic movement on the highways and curb the risk of fatal road accidents.
The meeting took the decisions for improving discipline in the country’s chaotic transport sector, official sources told New Age.
Non-compliance of buckling seat-belts, using cell phones while driving and riding motorcycles without wearing helmets are common violation of traffic rules.
Such violations of rules cause fatal accidents across the country that has the highest rate of road mishaps and casualties in the world.
The meeting also decided to ask Dhaka City Corporation to demolish its markets at New Market, Gulshan-1 and Gulshan-2 and construct multi-storeyed buildings having parking facilities at those sites.
Presided over by communication minister Syed Abul Hossain, the meeting observed that these markets had no adequate parking facilities which compounded traffic congestion in the city.
The meeting, however, did not ask the DCC to suspend its ‘illegal parking operation’ at areas like Motijheel and Dilkhusa which is largely blamed for congestions in city’s main commercial hub.
Concerned authorities were asked to take tough action against the offenders who piled up construction materials on the road disrupting movement of traffic. Besides, a decision was taken at the meeting for removing bill-boards, posters and hoardings from the electricity poles in the city.
Shipping minister Shahjahan Khan, secretaries of the ministry of home and communication and the acting IGP, among others, were present at the meeting.
The meeting identified half a dozen pockets such as Savar on Dhaka-Aricha highway and Gazipur, Mawna and Konabari on Dhaka-Tangail highway where the illegal establishments would be dismantled by next November.
Similar action would be taken in the other highways like Dhaka-Chittagong and Dhaka-Khulna in phases.
The communications minister told reporters after the meeting that his ministry wanted to do something visible to improve discipline in the communication sector.
Former communication secretary Mahbubur Rahman said the decisions for improving discipline on the highways are good. He, however, expressed doubt on implementation of such decisions.
He pointed out that strong political will and maintaining transparency were essential for attaining the tasks.
The military-backed caretaker government had dismantled hundreds of hats and bazars in the name of eviction drive which affected the country’s economy adversely and panicked the businessmen.
Referring to the communication ministry’s drive on eviction of rundown vehicles, Mahbubur Rahman said it was taken to ease traffic movement on the congested roads in the capital city.
‘But the success of the drive was very little as less than 100 old vehicles were seized,’ he said.
