Almost no progress has been made in a year since the biggest road safety project in Bangladesh was initiated by the government amid continuous fatal road crashes.
Out of five years of the multi-sector project, one year passed in completing the preparatory works, said the project officials.
Against the backdrop, at least 28 people were killed in two separate accidents on Tuesday and Wednesday in Faridpur and Jhalokathi districts, while many people are getting killed in road crashes every day on different roads and highways across the country.
On April 18, 2023, the executive committee of the National Economic Council approved the Road Safety Project at a cost of Tk 4,988 crore to reduce fatalities and injuries in road accidents and enhance the road safety management capacity of the agencies concerned.
It is the first World Bank-supported road safety project in South Asia to which the global lender will contribute Tk 3,760 crore.
The Bangladesh government is expected to bear the remaining Tk 1,238 crore cost of the project that is scheduled to be implemented between May 1, 2023, and June 30, 2028.
Under the project, the Roads and Highways Department will conduct an international road assessment programme on the 5,140 kilometres of national and regional highways to find out the safety deficiencies, if any.
A pilot programme will be taken on the total 140-kilometre stretch of the Joydevpur-Elenga and Natore-Rajshahi highways for national road safety demonstration, while an integrated traffic management and incident detection system will be created on these two highways and a road safety audit manual will be created.
Bangladesh Road Transport Authority will arrange four months of training for 60,000 new commercial drivers, create an integrated database of BRTA鈥檚 existing information system, and launch awareness programmes.
A police training centre to improve the capacity and skill of the highway police will be established in Madaripur, while 80 patrol motorcycles for the highway police will be procured, and a crash database will be formed.
The Directorate General of Health Services will refurbish three hospitals鈥擬ugda Medical College and Hospital, Tangail 250 Bed District Hospital, and Rajshahi Medical College Hospital鈥攖o procure 60 basic life support ambulances, 40 motorcycle ambulances, and medical equipment and arrange training for physicians, nurses, and other people concerned.
The RHD is the lead implementing agency for the project.
Road transport and bridges minister Obaidul Quader said on February 8 at a programme that he was considering this project as the top priority project for the country now.
鈥楶ersonally, I am not satisfied with the project progress,鈥� he said, adding, 鈥楴ow I have given my attention to this project. I will monitor the project and keep a role in supervision,鈥� he said.
According to project officials, as of now, they are only doing preparatory聽 work, and it is yet to enter the implementation phase.
Md Amanullah, the project director and RHD additional chief engineer, said that since the approval of the project, only Tk 4.5 crore has been released so far in the ongoing 2023鈥�2024 financial year.
The project office found coordination between multiple sectors challenging. At least 53 purchase packages and the requirement of 116 hectares of land were also considered challenging.
Amanullah said that they had no shortage of funds, but those funds could not be released yet as they were yet to complete the procurement process.
鈥業n Bangladesh, most projects start slowly. We don鈥檛 have any lack of sincerity. The progress of the project is not visible yet as procurement-related works are ongoing,鈥� he said.
Project officials said that they had only taken the initiative to appoint consultants for different services under the project.
Once the consultants are appointed, work on the project will start in the next financial year, they said.
According to a project synopsis, deaths and severe injuries are creating a dangerous public health crisis in Bangladesh.
Quoting the World Health Organisation, the synopsis reads that compared to developed countries, the number of deaths in road crashes is more than three times higher in Bangladesh, and for these crashes, the country has to spend two to three per cent of its Gross Domestic Product.
According WHO estimation, the number of road traffic fatalities in Bangladesh was 21,316 in 2015, 24,944 in 2018, and 31,578 in 2021.
This figure is significantly higher than the Bangladesh Police data, which showed 2,376 deaths in 2015, 2,635 deaths in 2018, and 5,084 deaths in 2021.
As per BRTA, 5,024 people were killed and 7,495 more were injured in road crashes in 2023.