On Thursday at 11:00 am a seminar on “Road Safety Problems in Dhaka City: The Roles and Initiatives of DTCA” was held at Bangladesh University of Engineering (BUET) Council Building, stated a press relese issued by BUET on Saturday.
The seminar was jointly organized by Accident Research Institute (ARI) of BUET and Dhaka Transport Coordination Authority (DTCA).
Road Transport and Bridges Minister Obaidul Quader, MP, joined the seminar as Chief Guest through video conference from his government residence while Road Transport and Highways Secretary Md. Nazrul Islam and BUET Vice-Chancellor Professor Dr. Satya Prasad Majumdar was present as special guests. BUET Pro-VC Dr. Abdul Jabbar Khan was present as the guest of honour.
The Chief Guest in his speech said that it is possible to prevent road accidents with the joint efforts of all. He said that a total of 6 metro rail routes including subway and flyover will be constructed by 2030. Metrorail Route-6 is already 52% completed. He said that ARI, BUET has identified 144 black spots across the country for removal of the problems.
The 4-lane highway spots have already been identified. Special projects have been taken along. Under this, the risk trend of 121 spots has been reduced. Initiatives are underway to develop high-risk road corridors across the country and work is underway to upgrade about 4500 kilometers of highways to four lanes. Professor Dr. Satya Prasad Majumder said that every day in the newspapers, TV channels and other news outlets we see gruesome pictures of road accidents. According to ARI, BUET based on police reports an average of 2,500 road accidents occurres in the country in each year killing more than 3,000 people.