The Dhaka-Mawa-Janjira highway experiences a top speed of 135 kilometres per hour (kph) against its allowable limit of 80 kph, causing frequent fatal accidents on the country's first expressway.
Since its opening in March 2020, an average 50 accidents have taken place annually on the highway.
The latest one at its toll plaza on Friday last claimed the lives of six people as a speeding bus rammed into a private car, a motorcycle and then a microbus.
Preliminary data from the Intelligent Transportation System (ITS) of the Roads and Highways Department (RHD) suggests that almost all kinds of vehicles do not care about speed limit and 50 per cent of the vehicles had a top speed of 135 kph on some specific days.
Still under experiment, the ITS could not detect types of transports and excluded motorcycles as the number plates are placed behind. The system detects the number plates from the front side.
According to data for a week from December 14 as shared by the RHD, 70,000 vehicles used the Dhaka-Mawa highway and 35,000 of those moved over the limit.
On December 22, some 9,349 vehicles used the expressway of which 5661 were private cars. Data showed that 4288 vehicles were speeding over the limit.
RHD launched the ITS on a pilot basis in March last.
As part of the project under a KOICA grant, it has already installed 24 CCTVs and eight ITSs at eight points along with various message sign monitors.
Officials said the data collected from the ITSs is not ready for sharing and its upgrading continued with other systems already under operation.
After completion of the pilot project, a traffic management centre will be formed in association with the agencies like the BRTA and Highway Police to ensure safety.
The Accident Research Institute under the Bangladesh University of Technology last year identified several other causes for frequent road accidents on the highway,
It showed that from June 2022 to April 2023, 22 crashes with 264 fatalities occurred on the expressway.
Studying some accidents, it found some reasons like tyre burst, over speeding, fatigue or drowsiness of drivers, mechanical or brake failure.
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