The Bangladesh Road Transport Authority has identified about 318km stretches of eight national highways as the most risky but no major initiatives have been taken before Eid to check the rush of vehicles on the stretches. BRTC officials said that they had identified the points in 2010–11 which needed to be repaired on a priority basis to reduce the risks of accident.
Transport operators are unhappy about the road condition although the communications minister claimed that 90 per cent of the national highways were fit for traffic.
Bangladesh has one of the highest fatality rates in traffic accidents in the world. More than 100 deaths per 10,000 motor vehicles is much higher than the rate of fatality in some other Asian countries as four in Malaysia and 12 in India.
The rate of accidents shoots up during Eid when millions of people travel to places outside Dhaka and back to celebrate Eid with family.
According to the Accident Research Institute, the
number of traffic accidents increases by a minimum of 20 per cent during Eid. The institute calculated that about 50 people were killed and more than 200 were injured in 31 road accidents across the country during the past Eid.
Long-distance bus operators are concerned about the current condition of the national highways. They urged the government to repair the roads to make journeys safe during Eid.
The communications minister, Obaidul Quader, told New Age on Thursday that highway police were asked to step up vigilance to stop risky driving and other factors contributing to fatal traffic accidents.
BRTA officials, however, said that two stretches of the Dhaka–Chittagong Highway, a stretch of the Dhaka–Sylhet Highway and a couple of roads in the nort are not risk-free.
A 49km stretch in Feni on Dhaka–Chittagong Highway was booked for 35 fatalities, a 95km stretch between Comilla and Feni of the same highway had 69 fatalities, according to a BTRA count in 2001–11.
A 12km stretch between Ashuganj and Sarail on the Dhaka–Sylhet Highway experienced 19 fatalities. Magura–Jhenaidah, Faridpur–Bhanga, Dinajpur–Beldanga, Rangpur–Kurigram, Cox’s Bazaar–Teknaf are in the worst category of the BRTA list.
Hanif Enterprise general manager Abdus Samad Mondol said that millions of passengers would face problems in reaching home unless wrecked vehicles were immediately removed after accidents on the highways.
A government document titled the Road Master Plan revealed that 58 per cent of the accidents took place because of drivers’ faults, which include over-speeding, dangerous overtaking and reckless driving.
Film actor Elias Kanchan, also chairman of Nirapad Sarak Chai, a road safety advocacy group, said that he had not seen any driver being punished seriously for traffic accidents in two decades.
He said that there were some instances of punishment but they were light or token. ‘In most of the cases, drivers go unpunished because of loopholes in laws.’
-With New Age input
