PM’s road-safety directives yet to take effect

Recent directives of prime minister Sheikh Hasina to ensure road safety against the backdrop of increasing incidents of road accidents have hardly any visible signs of implementation, transport company owners and workers have alleged.
The authorities, however, claim that directives regarding drivers’ rest every five hours of driving and alternative drivers for long distance transports have already been implemented. 
But senior transport leaders said it would take more time to fix how these directives would be implemented as there was a shortage of drivers. 
Meanwhile, directives regarding training facilities for drives and their assistants, using seatbelts while travelling and following traffic signals are yet to be implemented for lack of infrastructure. 
No major initiative but one inter-ministerial meeting was held so far to fix the action plans for implementing the directives. 
On June 25, in the weekly cabinet meeting, PM issued the directives against the backdrop of increasing incidents of road accidents, mostly due to reckless driving and exhaustion of drivers from longer driving hours. 
According to BRTA, the system of eight-hour working hour is as per country’s labour law. 
About alternative drivers, transport leaders cite lack of drivers, especially trained ones, is the major problem.
Till April this year, 34.19 lakh motor vehicles have been registered with Bangladesh Road Transport Authority while the number of driving licences issued by the authorities is 24.5 lakh. 
When it comes to training, according to the BRTA, there are 120 registered driving training schools, 174 licensed instructors and 17 driving training institutes under Bangladesh Road Transport Corporation, which are inadequate to train such a big number of drivers.
Apart from luxurious and in-built buses there are no seatbelts for drivers and passengers on buses. Seatbelts are also absent in trucks. 
Transport leaders allege that though there are seatbelts for drivers in buses, the workers in most case remove them for making the seat more comfortable. 
Road Transport and Highways Division secretary Md Nazrul Islam told New Age that the directive to ensure drivers’ rest was being implemented. 
He also claimed that with the existing number of drivers it was possible to have alternative drivers on long-route passenger and goods vehicles. 
But senior transport sector leaders have said that the directives on driver’s driving hours and alternative drivers are not being implemented as discussions are still going on to fix the action plans. 
Bangladesh Road Transport Workers’ Union general secretary Md Karam Ali said transport workers were not still getting rest every five hours of driving while alternative drivers were not made available on long-distance journey. 
‘We need at least 10 lakh new drivers if we want to implement the directive on keeping alternative drivers for long-route transports,’ said Bangladesh Road Transport Owners’ Association secretary general Khandakar Enayet Ullah. 
He, however, claimed that currently the directive on driver’s rest every five hours of driving was being implemented. 
Shymoli Paribahan managing director and Bangladesh Bus-Truck Owners’ Association senior leader Ramesh Chandra Ghosh said that some spots were proposed for rest rooms but no concrete decisions were yet made in this regard. 
RTHD secretary also said that they were holding meetings to fix some issues like building rest rooms. 
An inter-ministerial meeting was held in RTHD office on July 3 where a proposal was placed to build three highway-side rest rooms for drivers on Dhaka-Chittagong, Dhaka-Jessore (Benapole) and Dhaka-Khulna highways. 
Karam Ali, also a senior leader of Bangladesh Road Transport Workers’ Federation, said the proposed rest rooms would actually be suitable for goods-laden transport workers as they could take rest when they needed it.
But in the case of bus drivers, he argued, if they were to get down at resting places, it would be difficult for them to return to the source point of journey. 

News Courtesy:www.newagebd.net