Road Transport and Bridges Minister Obaidul Quader said on Sunday that Bangladesh ranks 88th among 183 countries in road accident death rate.
In response to a tabled question from Awami League MP elected from Chattogram M Abdul Latif, the minister said the information given in different researches that Bangladesh is top in South Asia in road accident death rate is not true.
“According to the World Health Organisation's latest World Health Ranking published in 2020, Bangladesh ranks 88th among 183 countries in road accident death rate. The death rate is 16.74 per 0.10 million.”
He mentioned that among other South Asian countries, Nepal, Sri Lanka, Bhutan and India ranked 72nd, 82nd, 85th and 90th respectively in 2020 which means Bangladesh’s position is after India in terms of safe roads among the neighboring countries.
In reply to another query from Benazir Ahmed, an AL MP elected from Dhaka, Quader said that a policy is being prepared to control plying of unapproved vehicles like easybike, nasimon, karimon and votvoti.
“Once the policy is finalised, a decision will be taken regarding giving approval of such vehicles,” he said.
The minister said, currently the number of authorised (registered) vehicles of BRTA is 55,82,310.
At present, vehicles such as easybike, nasimon, karimon and bhatovti are plying on the roads without permission.
The minister said dividers are being installed on different highways and service lanes are being constructed on all highways in phases.
In order to implement the prime minister's directive, he said, dope test report for professional drivers and renewal of their driving license made mandatory from January 30 last year.
In response to another question, the minister said that a project titled "Training for Heavy Vehicle Drivers" has been taken as part of a special training programme for raising their awareness to obey the law, through which it will be possible to create 0.30 million heavy vehicle drivers.