The Roads and Highways Department (RHD) will invest Tk 1.65 billion to remove accident-prone "black spots" on the national highways across the country to ensure road safety and check accidents, officials said Monday.
Ministry of Communications (MoC) officials said the RHD had already selected 144 "black spots" on the highways which pose threat to movement of vehicular traffic. It has taken steps to remove those.
The Bangladesh University of Engineering and Technology (BUET) and the RHD had earlier identified 227 dangerous spots on the roads. The RHD has already removed obstacles in 83 spots across the country.
"We've sent a project proposal to the Planning Commission. We are waiting for the approval of the Executive Committee of the National Economic Council (ECNEC). After approved we will start to remove the black spots," said a MoC official.
He said if they could remove the 144 accident-prone areas on the national highways the rate of accidents is expected to drop.
Bangladesh is one of the largest accident-prone countries in the world as thousands of people die in road accidents annually here.
According to a study conducted by the Accident Research Centre (ARC) of BUET, road accidents claim, on an average, 12,000 lives annually and lead to about 35,000 injuries.
The World Bank statistics showed annual fatality rate from road accidents is found to be 85.6 per 10,000 vehicles.
A senior RHD official said they had sought the entire Tk1.65 billion from the government exchequer to take away the "black spots" on the highways under a project titled "Improvement of Road Safety and Black Spots on National Highways". They would complete the work by June 2016.
We would develop and repair the roads in the accident-prone spots so that the lives of the passengers and the passers by are saved, he told the FE.
Under the project, the RHD would develop the intersections and road crossings for the people, make the curbed roads into the straight one, remove the obstacles before eyesight, and set up signals and road markers.
Among the 144 black spots selected by RHD on the national highways, 34 are situated in Rajshahi Division, 40 in Dhaka Division, eight in Chittagong Division, 11 in Khulna Division two in Barisal Division, and 35 in Rangpur Division.
