Highways to be under CCTV surveillance

Bangladesh’s perilous roads and highways will be covered by surveillance cameras and vehicle number plate detectors in phases to improve safety and cut road accidents.

The Road Transport and Bridges Ministry has forwarded the ‘Bangladesh Road Safety Project’ to the planning commission for the executive committee of the national economic council’s approval, a senior Planning Ministry official told The Business Post.

Last year, road accidents killed 6,284 people and injured 7,468 others, the Road Safety Foundation (RSF) said, estimating Tk 9,631 crore as the human resources loss from road crash fatalities. 

WHO said more than 15 people in every lakh are killed in road accidents a year in Bangladesh – more than three times higher than developed countries. It estimates the financial loss from direct and indirect road accidents in Bangladesh to about 2 to 3 per cent of the country’s GDP.

Under the project, 140 kilometres, which includes 70km from Joydevpur to Elenga and 70km from Natore to Chapainawabganj, will be brought under CCTV surveillance on a pilot basis. Integrated Traffic Management and Incident Detection System will be installed on the highways.

The ministry has identified 1,672km roads and highways (1,372km national and 300km regional) as ‘most vulnerable’. Bangladesh has 21,595km roads and highways. Of them, 3,908km is national and 4,482.54km regional highways while 13,206km is district roads.