Road dividers on all highways

The government will take steps to set up road divider on all the highways of the country gradually to minimise the number of road accidents, Communications Minister Syed Abul Hossain said yesterday.
“I have already taken consent from the prime minister in this regard,” he said at a view exchange meeting on “Finalising the guidelines of running overload control station”, held at Sharak Bhaban in the city.
Initiatives are already on to construct four lanes and median on different roads, including Dhaka-Chittagong Highway and Joydevpur-Mymensingh Highway, said the minister.
He also pointed out that overloading and lack of median are the major causes of road accidents.
Citing an example the minister said accidents were a regular phenomenon in the city's Airport Road sometimes ago, but the situation changed once road divider was built.
The minister blamed the last caretaker regime and the BNP-led four party alliance government for the poor condition of highways, saying they did not maintain the roads properly.
He said Tk 990 crore maintenance budget for the current fiscal is quite insufficient, considering that of previous years.
“We will start the work after receiving fund from the government as we have already got assurance on it,” said the minister.
Abul Hossain mentioned that his ministry would go for setting up weighbridges and overload control stations on highways. Ministry officials are holding meetings with the stakeholders to make the stations useful, he added.
Chief engineer of Roads and Highways Department (RHD), Azizur Rahman said plying of overloaded vehicles on highways is reducing the longevity of roads.
In many cases drivers remain reluctant to use the overload control stations and at times they manage permission for plying overloaded trucks bribing on-duty staff, said an RHD official.
According to a Buet study, faulty road construction causes 25 to 30 percent road accidents, said KM Enayethullah, secretary general of Bangladesh Sarak Paribahan Malik Samity.
TRAIN ACCIDENT
The Ministry of Communications would take steps to evict all mobile shops from railway stations and also remove illegal structures, said Minister Syed Abul Hossain.
Responding to a question after the programme he said the driver, who took a cup of tea from a station, is responsible for the recent train accident in Narsingdi.
A three-member committee is working to fix the compensation for the victims of the accident, he added.
If it is late, he would try to help them personally as a minister, he said, adding that he would also request the prime minister to give money from her fund, if necessary.