Govt. to adopt new measures for road safety : Minister Mahaseth

Purna Prasad Mishra : Kathmandu, Dec. 31 : Minister for Physical Infrastructure and Transport Management Raghubir Mahaseth has shared that the government was working to widen the roads and bridges for road safety.

At a meeting of the Development and Technology Committee of the House of Representatives on Monday, Minister Mahaseth said that the roads and bridges would be of at least two lanes.

“Road accidents have increased due to shops and parking lots on the pavements. A meeting with the Metropolitan Traffic Police Division would be held by today itself to clear the pavements. The ropes fixed in the form of road dividers would be removed in a week,” the Minister promised.

Likewise, road dividers would be fixed in the Koteshwor-Kalanki stretch of the ring road adding that two drivers would be in place in the long routes. Similarly, the driving license would be holed if the drivers were found using mobile phones while driving.

During the meeting, Committee Chairperson Kalyan Kumari Khadka said that the insurance scheme for the passengers was dragged into controversy if the overcrowded bus met with an accident.

Poor status of infrastructures has resulted in road accidents since the tax collected in the name of road repair works was not spent in the proper heading, Khadka added.

Likewise, lawmaker Ram Bahadur Bista drew attention of the Department of Roads to upgrade the road quality of Surkhet-Jumla section adding that maximum number of road accidents are taking place there.

Lawmakers Yagyaraj Sunuwar, Gaurishankar Chaudhary, Tek Bahadur Basnet, Kedar Sigdel, Kamala Roka, Ganesh Pahadi, Asha Kumari BK, Rajendra Rai, Indu Sharma, Bina Kumari Shrestha, Lilanath Shrestha, Minakshi Jha, Bahadur Singh Lama, Anil kumar Jha and Durga Poudel drew attention of the government on road safety and syndicate in the transport management sector.

Ministry’s secretary Madhusudan Adhikari, Director General of Department of Roads Rabindranath Shrestha, Additional Inspector General of Nepal Police Pushkar Karki and Chief of Metropolitan Traffic Police Division Basanta Panta among others were present on the occasion.

Photo By : Mukunda Kalikote/NepaliReporter