By Syed Altefat Hossain

DHAKA, Sept 7, 2025 (BSS) - In a major push to curb rising road fatalities, the government has taken initiatives to strengthen road safety management in the country by uniting four key agencies under a coordinated platform.

The initiatives is being implemented under World Bank-funded five-year Bangladesh Road Safety Project (BRSP).

Launched in May 2023 with an outlay of US$208 million, the project aims to reduce road crashes, improve post-crash care, and modernize traffic enforcement. Officials hope it will not only save thousands of lives annually but also reduce the heavy burden on healthcare and boost economic resilience.

Transport economists estimate road crashes cost Bangladesh about 3 percent of GDP each year. According to BRTA, 5,856 crashes killed 5,840 people in 2024, up from 5,024 deaths in 2023. In just the first half of 2025, at least 2,943 road fatalities have already been recorded.

However, Bangladesh has pledged to cut down road fatalities to 50 percent by 2030 in line with the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs).

"This is the first time in our country that the Roads and Highways Department (RHD), BRTA, Bangladesh Police, and the Directorate General of Health Services (DGHS) are working together under one umbrella to reduce highway accidents and strengthen post-crash response," Project Director Mohammad Shabbir Hasan Khan told BSS.

"Our ultimate goal is not only to reduce crashes but also to create a Safe System Approach - safe road users, safe vehicles, safe speeds, safe roads, and post-crash care - where prevention, enforcement, and response work in harmony," said Hasan, also additional chief engineer at the RHD, which is leading the project and will coordinate the implementation until June 2028.

While acknowledging that road crashes cannot be eliminated completely, he said, "We can reduce their frequency and severity through coordinated actions."

RHD: Safer highways, not wider ones
Nearly 70 percent of the project cost is allocated to RHD-led works. Unlike typical infrastructure projects, no new highways will be built under the project. Instead, the focus is on targeted safety interventions to existing roads.

As per the project, two pilot corridors have been identified: Joydevpur-Elenga stretch of N4 (70km) and Natore-Rajshahi stretch of N6 (70km).

Additionally, 500 km of high-risk road segments across Dhaka, Rajshahi, Rangpur, Khulna, and Mymensingh have been prioritized using an International Road Assessment Programme (iRAP) survey of 5,000 km.

According to the officials, the RHD will implement civil works under four packages that included safe pedestrian crossings such as raised zebra crossings and speed calming zones near schools, markets, and industrial hubs, roadside safety barriers and guardrails at accident-prone curves, junction improvements to reduce chaotic U-turns and conflicts, blackspot treatments, such as re-engineering dangerous intersections where frequent collisions occur and clear road markings, rumble strips, and improved signage.

"These interventions are globally proven to cut fatalities," Hasan said, adding that RHD is also updating its 2005 road geometry design manual with international safety standards. "Every future road project will incorporate road safety features from the design stage."

BRTA: Training drivers and digitizing services
The BRTA will address human error, a leading cause of road crashes, through large-scale driver training.

Under the project, BRTA Director (Road Safety) Sitangshu Shekhar Biswas said, 40,000 new professional drivers will receive four-month training, while 20,000 existing drivers will undergo five-day refresher sessions in partnership with BRTC.

He also said they will develop some standard training modules and update the road sign and signal manual.

BRTA will also modernize service delivery by digitally integrating licensing, registration, fitness checks, and fee payments, which are currently fragmented, Sitangshu said.

"Our project will design an integrated IT platform so all systems can communicate, reducing duplication, minimizing errors, and improving enforcement," he explained, saying, consultancy support will be engaged to design the system architecture.

Police: High-tech enforcement and crash database
The Bangladesh Police will pioneer IT-based traffic enforcement. Along N4 and N6 pilot corridors, an Integrated Traffic Management and Incident Detection System (ITMIDS) will be introduced.

"For the first time in Bangladesh, high-tech cameras will detect speeding, lane violations, and accidents in real time," Hasan said. Linked with BRTA databases, the system will automatically issue fines, which would reduce human intervention and ensure consistency.

Besides, a National Crash Database will also be created under police management, which will be accessible to all stakeholders - BRTA, RHD and DGHS - so that road accident data is centrally stored and analyzed, he said, adding, "Right now, we lack reliable statistics, which hampers policymaking."

To strengthen enforcement capacity, the project director said, a Highway Police Training Centre will be built at Shibchar, Madaripur and 80 patrol motorcycles will be procured for quicker response and improved patrolling.

DGHS: Life-saving post-crash care
Since the post-crash response is as important as prevention, Hasan said the DGHS will focus on post-crash emergency care.

In developed countries, ambulances are expected to reach crash sites within minutes, but in Bangladesh, delays cost countless lives, he added.

To bridge this gap, the official said, 60 Basic Life Support ambulances will be deployed along the pilot corridors, managed through a call center-based fleet system.

Unlike hospital-based ambulances, these will be stationed at intervals along the corridors while each of the ambulances will be staffed with a driver and a trained paramedic, equipped with life-saving kits

"The call centre will coordinate nearest-ambulance dispatch, ensuring response times within minutes," Hasan said.

Additionally, bystanders and shopkeepers will be trained in first aid to act as first responders.

Besides, the DGHS will upgrade emergency units at Tangail, Rajshahi and Mugda general hospitals with modern equipment and develop a Trauma Registry in 12 districts to systematically record crash-related injuries.

Progress and outlook
"Already, tenders for four civil works packages are under evaluation. We hope to award at least two by December 2025 and the others by early 2026," Hasan said, adding, contracts for ambulance procurement have already been finalized, while consultancy hiring for IT integration and database design is under way.

"This is a complex project, but if implemented successfully, it will create a model corridor that Bangladesh can replicate nationwide," he said. "We hope it will set a new benchmark for road safety in Bangladesh."

Furthermore, the government has taken a move to formulate a new law named 'Road Safety Act' to mitigate road risks covering all the measures focused in globally recommended Safe System Approach. 

An official familiar with the initiative said the government took the move following the demand for a separate road safety law from different stakeholders, as the previous act (Road Transport Act-2018) left several critical aspects unaddressed.