Traffic management in Kathmandu: Authorities urged to promote road safety

KATHMANDU, June 9: Poor road infrastructure, encroachment on footpath, haphazard parking, lack of much public awareness on road safety, rush of vehicles and rush by pedestrians to cross the road are among those major reasons behind increasing rate of traffic accidents in the Kathmandu Valley said the Metropolitan Traffic Police Division.

At a meeting on the road safety organised today by the Development Committee under the Legislature-Parliament, Division Chief Additional Inspector General of Police Mingmar Sherpa shared this, adding that in this backdrop the Division was forced to intensify action against traffic rule violators.

The Division data reading is that a total of 166 people had lost their life to traffic accidents occurred in the Valley last fiscal year. Similarly, the Valley recorded 5,668 cases of traffic accident in this period in which 275 individuals had been injured and the number of those suffering minor injuries was 3,901.

More, traffic rule violations by vehicles carrying VIPs and those bearing the white and yellow (government) number plates has posed a challenge in traffic management and road safety, the Division stated, putting forth the demands for inclusion of curriculum on road safety in school textbooks, criteria for driving schools, and establishment of a resource and traffic training center within the Division before the parliamentary committee.

The Division has fined some 569,815 vehicles for violating traffic rules in the past ten months of the current fiscal.

More, it has come up with a special action plan to cope with the adversities seen in the traffic management here and for the security of road commuters and budget of around Rs 6. 76 billion is required to implement the plan.

Earlier, the Division had decided to ban vehicles from making horn since April 14 this year and up to Thursday since then 5,507 vehicles were fined for violating this rule.

The Committee has directed the Ministry of Physical Infrastructure and Transport to work in collaboration with the Ministry of Urban Development to set criteria for highway roads. The Committee also instructed the authority concerned to promote road safety.

Committee President Rabindra Adhikari said bearing in mind widespread complaints regarding difficulties in traffic management during the movement of five VVIPs, the authority concerned was directed for simplification.

Likewise, the Ministry of Physical Infrastructure and Transport and its subordinate bodies were asked to build pavements for pedestrians and also build zebra crossing in a distance of 120 meters within the next 15 days.

The Committee also directed for repairing the street lamps and to make diplomatic efforts to make sure the construction of pavements along the foreign embassies based in the capital.

Lawmakers Bhakta Bahadur Khapangi Magar, Aangtawa Sherpa, Shanta Manawi, Janardan Dhakal, Ganesh Pahadi , Ram Krishna Ghimire, Anita Devkota, Mohan Baniya, and Guru Prasad Burlakoti drew the attention of the authorities concerned towards the trend of giving no priority to pedestrians even on zebra crossing.

In the meeting, Inspector General of Police Prakash Aryal demanded lawmakers increase fines for traffic rule violators as it would according to him make people more alert to the traffic rules. RSS