Still no new action plan for road safety
The government has failed to formulate a new action plan for road safety, even though tenure of the previous one expired in 2020.
Although a draft for National Road Safety Strategic Action Plan-2021-2024 was prepared over a year ago, it did not get authorities' approval yet.
This dilly-dallying over formulation is going on when the country is witnessing a sharp rise of road crashes, leaving dozens of people dead and injured on a regular basis.
"This [delay in formulating the plan] actually exposes that the authorities concerned are not giving due importance to road-safety issues," said Prof Hadiuzzaman, director of Accident Research Institute at Bangladesh University of Engineering and Technology.
He said road crashes have become a national problem, and if authorities had realised that, they would not take so long to formulate the plan.
"Although previous plans remained largely confined in paper, there should be a plan, and authorities should take steps to implement it," he told The Daily Star yesterday.
"Fifteen to 20 people are getting killed every day. So, I think, the stakeholders have lost their sensitivity over the issue, which is reflected in their action," he added.
A total of 5,088 people were killed in 5,472 road crashes in 2021, 30 percent higher than the previous year, according to a police report.
Other road-safety organisations put the figure much higher.
HISTORY OF ACTION PLANS
Since 1997, the government has been preparing strategic action plans for improving road safety. Eight action plans have been approved by National Road Safety Council (NRSC) so far, with the last one being approved in November 2017, with a deadline of December 2020.
The goal of the eighth action plan was to achieve the SDG (Sustainable Development Goal) target by halving the number of road accidents, fatalities and injuries by 2020.
But the target could not be achieved, and the revised deadline is 2030, officials said.
Two months before the last action plan expired, Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina, while speaking on the occasion of National Road Safety Day in October that year, gave directions to prepare a new plan.
Road Transport and Highways Division in October that year directed Bangladesh Road Transport Authority (BRTA) to prepare a draft and take opinions and updates from ministries and agencies concerned.
WHY THE DELAY?
BRTA placed the draft of the strategic action plan before a meeting of NRSC, the apex body formed in 1995 to take policy decisions over road-safety issues, on February 18 last year.
According to the draft, authorities want to reduce road accidents, fatalities and injuries by 20 to 25 percent by the end of 2024, and 50 percent by 2030.
But, the meeting led by Road Transport and Bridges Minister Obaidul Quader, formed a committee to examine and finalise the draft.
The committee, led by an additional secretary of the road transport and highways division, was asked to complete its tasks within one month.
Contacted, BRTA spokesperson Mahbub-e-Rabbani said the committee has given its report and they have updated the draft.
"But, the plan could not be approved, as no NRSC meeting was held," Rabbani, also director (road safety) of BRTA, told The Daily Star yesterday.
He hoped the draft would be approved once the meeting is held. However, he could not say when that would happen.
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