KATHMANDU, Dec 20: Parliamentary committee on Development and Technology on Friday held a discussion on frequent road accidents. 

Speaking during the meeting, Secretary at the Ministry of Physical Infrastructure and Transportation Devendra Karki said that the ministry alone can’t minimize road accidents without good coordination among all the concerned stakeholders.

He further added “The ministry alone is not capable enough to check the road mishaps as there is a total of 80,000 km road in the country. In which, only 12,000 km is under the federal ministry.” 

According to Karki, road accidents are not occurring only because of poor roads but also due to human errors and mechanical flaws. He reiterated that good coordination among the federal, provincial and local governments helps minimizing the road accidents in the future. 

On the occasion, Chief at Metropolitan Traffic Police Division (MPTD) Senior Superintendent of Police (SSP) Bhim Dhakal insisted that the cases of road accidents are on the rise due to a large number of vehicles exceeding the capacity of the roads.

“As we have such roads in Kathmandu which are built without proper engineering and planning, they are also the major causative factors for frequent road accidents. At the same time, we have dilapidated roads adding fuel to the fire,” said Dhakal adding, “Public transportation service providers are being profit-oriented which also leads to accidents at times.”

According to the statistics unveiled by the ministry, cases of road accidents are alarmingly rising. A total of 2,541 lost their lives in 10,965 accidents during 2017/18 (2074/75 BS). Similarly, in the last fiscal year 2018/19, the number of accidents climbed up to 13,366 in which 2,789 died. Likewise, in the first five months of the current fiscal year, 931 lost their lives. During this period, 6,912 road mishaps occurred. Of these accidents, more than 90 percent were due to human errors and faulty vehicles. 

 
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