Bangladesh Jatri Kalyan Samity has demanded a separate allocation of Tk 100 billion (Tk 10,000 crore) in the upcoming budget to ensure safe roads for all.
The passengers' welfare platform made the demand at a roundtable discussion titled ‘Safe road: Our responsibility’ held at the National Press Club in Dhaka city on Thursday marking the Fifth Global Safety Road Week.
The allocation should be spent on driver training, mass awareness, rescue operation, treatment, and compensation expense, it said, citing that there are a number of projects and measures to avoid road accidents but nothing specific in the national budget, and no ‘economic code’ in it.
The speakers at the discussion also emphasised raising awareness among pedestrians about traffic rules for what they said 41 per cent road accidents happen due to the pedestrians’ negligence.
A total of 24, 954 people - 85 per cent male and 15 per cent female - were killed in road accidents in 2016, while the number was 21,316 in 2012, the association revealed citing a WHO report, drawing attention to the rise in numbers of road a crashes during the period under review.
The speakers also called for ensuring speed control system, 24-hours CCTV monitoring on the roads, introducing trauma centres alongside highways, preventing drug-driving, control on motor-bike and three wheelers, digital fitness system for vehicles, local transport committee, proper survey and statistics in transport sector etc.
They also recommended ensuring sufficient number of staff at the country's Road Transport Authority, saying that the current manpower is insufficient to deal with the huge sector.
Mozammel Hoque Chowdhury, secretary general of the Jatri Kalyan Samity, placed the demands and recommendations at the event, while Sharifuzzaman Sharif, general secretary of Nagorik Sanghati, and former BRTA chairman Aiubur Rahman spoke.
