Move on to formulate guideline on setting max speed limits for roads
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A move has been taken to formulate a guideline on setting maximum speed limits for different types of road infrastructure in the country.
At present, the country has nearly 400,000 kilometre road infrastructure in the form of national and regional highways, and district, upazila and rural roads, built by agencies like Roads and Highways Department (RHD), Local Government Engineering Department (LGED), and city corporations.
Sources said the Bangladesh Road Transport Authority (BRTA), the regulatory authority of motorised vehicles, on Monday held a meeting with all the agencies and has requested the Accident Research Institute (ARI) of Bangladesh University of Engineering and Technology (BUET) to help draft the guideline.
They said all these agencies usually design roads setting different speed limits, while the restrictions are not maintained properly during driving due to a lack of strong monitoring.
A BRTA official said the ARI, in association with the agencies concerned, will study the issue and draft the guideline in the next few months.
Kazi Mohammad Shifun Newaz, Assistant Professor of ARI, said the speed limit is necessary to check reckless driving as well as high speed driving.
He said the limit is calculated on various factors, including road location, strength, traffic and vehicle.
BRTA's move has been taken in accordance with the Road Transport Act (RTA) 2018 as its section 44(1) has directed to maintain speed limits for different kinds of roads for ensuring safety. It also keeps a provision of fine of Tk 10,000 for overspeeding.
Though an announcement came from the National Road Safety Council in August 2015 to keep the speed limit for highways at 80 km per hour, it was not followed or maintained, leading to an increase in road accidents in the country every year.
Later, in 2017, the speed limit was reduced to 60kmph by the Road Transport and Highways Division.
In October, the Road Safety Foundation recorded 314 accidents across the country, killing 694 people and injuring 694 others.
RHD has nearly 22,000 km of road infrastructure, including national highways, while LGED owns the road infrastructure of 375,000 km which was built in the form of district and upazila roads.