The government has fixed the maximum speed limit for motor vehicles at 80 kilometres per hour in an attempt to reduce road crashes.
Plying of any kinds of three-wheelers on three categories of roads鈥攅xpressways, national and regional highways鈥攈as also been banned as a part of that attempt.
The Bangladesh Road Transport Authority under the road transport and bridge ministry issued a circular on Tuesday to announce the formulation of the Motor Vehicle Speed Limit Guidelines, 2024 aimed at halving the deaths and injuries in road crashes by 2030 as per the Sustainable Development Goal 3.6.
Violation of the guidelines will be subject to legal action under the Road Transport Act, 2018.
Before these guidelines were issued, the BRTA chairman Nur Mohammad Mazumder said that earlier the National Road Safety Council imposed 80kmph as the maximum speed limit, while the 1984 rules of the now abolished Motor Vehicles Ordinance also had some speed limits.
These new guidelines gave detailed categories, he added.
The guidelines in its preface admitted that road crashes have increased in the country and identified over speeding and reckless driving as two major factors causing road crashes.
The guidelines divide the roads in Bangladesh into 10 categories.
Under the first category, on the four- and six- lane expressways, light passenger vehicles like car, jeep and microbus and medium and heavy passenger vehicles like bus and minibus can run at the maximum speed of 80kmph, motorcycle at the maximum speed of 60kmph, and goods laden vehicles like truck, mini truck and covered van and articulated vehicle with trailer can run at a speed up to 50kmph.聽
The second and third categories are the four- and six- lane national highways and the two-lane national highways and the regional highways respectively.
Movement of three-wheeler vehicles on these three categories roads is banned.
Earlier on August 1, 2015, the road transport and bridges ministry banned three-wheelers and non-motorised vehicles from 22 national highways in the wake of a spate of fatal traffic crashes.
Later on, the ministry also kept three-wheeler vehicles off from the Dhaka Elevated Expressway and Dhaka-Mawa-Bhanga Expressway.
The other categories of roads are - district roads, national or regional highway crossing through any city corporation, municipality or district headquarters areas, other roads inside city corporations, municipal corporations or district headquarters areas, upazila highways, two-lane primary urban roads, and other narrow roads inside cities and rural areas.