The government plans to reduce road accidents by 50 per cent within 2020 through increasing the number of skilled drivers.
The country will get 100,000 skilled drivers in next five years under the Skills for Employment Investment Programme (SEIP) project, reports BSS.
“The government has decided to give training to 52,000 drivers under the project in the next three years from 2018 to 2020,” Syed Nasir Ershad, AEPD (public-1) of the SEIP, said.
“A total of 100,000 drivers will be given motor-vehicle training under the SEIP project in the next five years,” he said.
Syed Nasir Ershad informed that Bangladesh Road Transport Corporation (BRTC) is currently entrusted with giving training to 22,800 people while Bureau of Manpower, Employment and Training (BMET) to 17,040 others.
Agreements have already been signed with SEIP and BRTC and BMET to this end.
Under the project, officials said, the drivers will also be given automobile mechanical training and moral education to make them truly efficient, and all of them will be given driving license upon completion of their training.
They will also be taught two languages, English and Arabic, to make capable to get overseas jobs.
The people having minimum eight pass certificates, National Identity Cards (NIDs) and aged between 20 and 35 will be eligible for applying to get the four-month (360 hours) training.
The trainees will be given Taka 100 per day upon their presence.
“We have already started giving motor-vehicle driving and maintenance training to 22,800 people from March 3 this year with a target to complete it by 2020 in line with the agreement signed with the SEIP,” BRTC Chairman and also Additional Secretary Farid Ahmed Bhuiyan said.
“Already 1,800 drivers have got training under the project and training for 2,000 more drivers has started from July 5,” he said.
Farid said: “A total of 36,000 people will be provided with the training under the SEIP project. In the first phase, 22,800 people will be given the training from 2018 to 2020 and the rest will be brought under the training from 2021 to 2022”.
“The training will be held at three training institutes and 16 training centres of the BRTC,” he said, adding that the government has given 100 vehicles from the government transport pool in this regard.
About the outcome of the training, the BRTC Chairman said it will a multi-dimensional effect as the drivers will be efficient not only in driving but also in English and Arabic languages, which will help them get local and overseas jobs. “The growing demand of trained drivers will be met after completion of the training.”
“Most importantly, the rate of accident will decrease manifolds after completion of the training and help attain the government target to reduce accidents by 50 percent by 2020 in line with Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs),” he said.
Dr Nurul Islam, Director (training) of the BMET, said they have signed an agreement with SEIP for giving training to a total of 60,000 people on motor-vehicle driving and automobile mechanism in the next five years starting from 2018.
“We have already started giving training to 17,040 people in 61 training centres of BMET from January this year and the training will be completed by 2020,” he said.
The government has given 99 vehicles from the government transport pool to conduct the training programme, he added.
Nurul said: “According to the experts, road accidents mostly occur due to reckless as well as careless driving of drivers and their lack of training, careless movement of pedestrians and mechanical fault. After completion of the training, the road accidents caused by the drivers’ fault will decrease by manifold”.
He said discipline will come in the transport sector as the drivers will be given moral education during the training.