Ensuring safe Eid journeys

FE Team | Published: March 23, 2024 20:22:39

On the eve of every Eid, people in their thousands make home-bound journeys to celebrate the greatest religious festival of Muslims with near and dear ones. Worries of various sorts, however, shadow the joyous mood of most home-goers. Overcrowding, road safety and uncertainty involving the availability of bus, train, launch and plane tickets are among the major worries. Widening of roads and building of eye-catching structures like the Padma Bridge notwithstanding, the number of road accidents continues to be high. That number goes a few notches up before and after the Eid vacation.
It is not simply a question of more buses or other forms of motorised vehicles on the highways that worry people. Most drivers, particularly those driving passenger buses, are overtaken by a mood of senseless competition and rules for safety fly out of the window. As safety remains a paramount concern for authorities, it falls on the law enforcers nationwide to enforce basic safety procedures. However, many road safety surveys and studies have identified 155 hotspots of congestion and there is the question of keeping slow-moving three-wheelers off the highways. There is also the question of having requisite law enforcers on the ground to enforce these rules.
Again, like clockwork, the relevant ministry sits with all the stakeholders that include police, representatives of bus and other associations, the filling stations, etc. in an effort to find common ground so that the mass exodus follow some modicum of order. This of course is easier said than done. Every Eid, transport leaders promise one thing and do something else entirely. All the good intentions of authorities who painstakingly arrange these meetings in the hope that some semblance of lawfulness will be maintained on the roads; that people will be able to buy tickets at the normal rate and not have to resort to the black market - none of that pans out in the end, unfortunately. On top of all this, the presence of slower vehicles on the highways inevitably lead to unwanted accidents causing untold suffering of people, either in loss of life or limbs. This is not a job only for authorities. Rather, every stakeholder should try to follow the law instead of lusting after limitless greed. Bus companies give their unfit vehicles a fresh coat of paint and put them in to operation, then there are no separate lanes for slower vehicles like two-wheelers and three-wheelers (like CNG). It is physically impossible to stop people from using these modes of transportation.
Since the authorities have not made provisions for them and since it is not possible to stop them from plying the roads in their tens of thousands, perhaps authorities should start thinking about what they can do before the festivities next year. Merely appealing to the good sense of people, transport companies, etc. will not solve the problem. Authorities need to find alternative and safe means of mass travel for people. The obvious answer is railway. But that service has remained handicapped for reasons beyond comprehension for decades. Only railway can move people in bulk in safety. Is it not time that the government got its act together on improving this service? Trains remain the only viable option and perhaps it is time to privatise the service altogether.