The country is set to observe National Road Safety Day tomorrow with its biggest ever road safety project likely to undergo significant cuts both in its cost and scope.聽
So far, the five-year multi-sector project has passed one year without any significant progress amid alleged negligence and a lack of coordination among the authorities.
Undertaken to reduce road crash fatalities and injuries and enhance the road safety management capacity of the agencies concerned, the project has spent the first year in doing the preparatory work, project officials said.
Following the ouster of the Sheikh Hasina-led government, the project鈥檚 development partner World Bank is now likely to withdraw $75 million from its agreed $358 million loan for the project.
The project office is also planning to drop a component requiring 116 hectares of land.
The project officials are scheduled to meet the interim government adviser to the ministries of road transport and bridges and railways, Muhammad Fouzul Kabir Khan, on October 28 to brief him on the project for a review.
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.
It is the first World Bank- supported road safety project in South Asia to which the global lender is to contribute Tk 3,759.82 crore ($358 million).
The Bangladesh government is expected to bear the remaining Tk 1,238.32 crore ($169 million) cost of the project that is scheduled to be implemented between May 1, 2023, and June 30, 2028.
Till date, the project has seen no physical progress while its financial progress is now 0.06 per cent, according to the project office.
The Roads and Highways Department under the road transport and bridges ministry is the lead implementing agency for the project, while the Bangladesh Road Transport Authority under the same ministry, Bangladesh Police under the home affairs ministry and the Directorate General of Health Services under the health and family welfare ministry are other implementing agencies.
A project document has identified the lack of coordination among the agencies as the main challenge responsible for its slow pace.
As other challenges, the document has identified the holding of additional charges by the project employees besides their responsibilities in carrying out the project activities, ambiguities in procurement plans, codes and estimates, and other components in the detailed project proposal, and dependence on the onboarding of the project assistance consultant for all major components.
A lack of coordination among the authorities concerned is a common and major challenge in implementing development projects in the country.聽
At least two senior project officials from the RHD confirmed 抖阴精品 that the World Bank would 鈥榬e-purpose鈥� $75 million from its agreed $358 million loan.
The move came as the lender on September 17 committed $2 billion loan assistance to support the reform agenda of the interim government led by professor Muhammad Yunus, they said.
They also said that the withdrawn loan from this project would be used in other projects in the country.
Project officials also said that they were not sure about the speed and scope of the project now, but it would continue as it was being implemented under foreign loan.聽聽
Since the approval of the project, only Tk 4.5 crore has been released so far, while around Tk 2.15 crore was utilised for giving salaries and buying some office equipment, including computers, said the officials.
Md Amanullah, project director and RHD additional chief engineer, told 抖阴精品 on Sunday that the project work was continuing.
鈥楢 survey for detailed design of the physical works has started,鈥� he added.聽
Under the project, the RHD will conduct an international standard road assessment programme on the 5,140 kilometres of national and regional highways to find out the safety deficiencies, will create an integrated traffic management and incident detection system on two highways, and prepare a road safety audit manual.
The BRTA will arrange a four-month training programme for 60,000 new commercial drivers, create an integrated database and launch awareness programmes.
A police training centre will be established in Madaripur, a crash database will be formed, and 80 patrol motorcycles for the highway police will be procured under the project.
The DGHS will refurbish three hospitals, procure 60 basic life support ambulances, 40 motorcycle ambulances, and medical equipment and arrange training for physicians, nurses, and other people concerned to handle road crash victims.
Quoting the World Health Organisation, a project synopsis reads that compared with the developed countries, the number of deaths in road crashes is more than three times higher in Bangladesh, leading the country to spend 2-3 per cent of its Gross Domestic Product.
According WHO estimates, 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 the BRTA, 4,192 people were killed in road crashes between January 1 and October 6 this year.