Holidaymakers’ Safety: Watchdogs place recommendations

The National Committee to Protect Shipping, Roads, Railways (NCPSRR) and Bangladesh Jatri Kalyan Samity (BJKS) yesterday placed 12-point and 20-point recommendations respectively, to ensure safety of holidaymakers ahead of Eid-ul-Fitr.

NCPSRR placed the recommendations through a press statement, signed by NCPSRR’s president Mohammad Shaheed Miah and general secretary Ashis Kumar Dey. It said there is an apprehension of traffic jam on highways, as construction and repair works are going on in many places.

Besides, roads may become risky as Eid would be celebrated in monsoon season, and there is panic among people due to frequent road accidents, it added.

Their recommendations include stopping operations of unregistered, unfit vehicles and vehicles without proper route permit; installing CCTV cameras at terminals and highways; mobile court drives to stop carrying passengers on trucks, pickup vans and roofs of buses; implementation of laws to stop overcharging and ticket blacking; and steps to stop reckless driving and illegal overtaking on highways.

It also demanded measures to stop plying of auto-rickshaws and other three-wheelers on national and regional highways, and seamless operations of ferry services at Shimulia-Kathalia and Paturia-Doulatdia ferry terminals.

Most of BJKS’ recommendations concurred with those of NCPSRR.

Sent by its Secretary General Mozammel Hoque Chowdhury, BJKS recommended stopping plying of motorcycles during Eid rush; evicting illegal markets besides highways; a stop to extortion on highways; giving rest to drivers; and cancelling leaves of government bodies involved with the road sector.