KATHMANDU, Jan 15: The Ministry of Physical Infrastructure and Transport (MoPIT) has formed a five-member task force after vehicle accidents started taking place every other day.

Minister Prakash Jwala has formed a task force to find out the defects in physical and technical aspects after road accidents started causing human, financial and material losses.

As many as 11 people lost their lives when a passenger bus coming from Nepalgunj to Kathmandu crashed on Friday night, while five people died in an accident in Thankot Chitlang. Similarly, on Saturday, two people were killed when a jeep traveling from Burtibang in Baglung to Dhorpatan met with an accident. “After the death of 19 people within two days, the MoPIT has formed a task force to find out the physical and technical errors,” said Raghuram Bista, Joint Secretary of the Ministry.

A five-member task force has been formed under the chairmanship of Dhan Bahadur Tamang, former secretary of the ministry, to find out the errors and weaknesses responsible for the road accidents.

A working group has been formed with Superintendent Engineer Shyam Bahadur Khadka of the Federal Road Supervision Office, Surkhet, Director of Interprovincial Coordination of Vehicle Monitoring and Driver Management, Research Branch, Representative of Traffic Division of Police Headquarters and CDE Suresh Shrestha of the Ministry of Physical Infrastructure and Transport as Member Secretary.

The task force has been given the responsibility of conducting a study on vehicle accidents in the past one month, study reports of past task forces and on-site studies, analyzing the causes and aspects of road accidents, and analyze the institutional and technical aspects to reduce road accidents. Joint Secretary Bista said that the task force has also been given the responsibility to suggest short-term, medium-term and long-term measures to reduce road accidents.

The meeting presided over by Keshav Sharma, the secretary of the ministry, has decided to form a committee to study road accidents, prepare a list of road safety experts immediately, and start work on training and public awareness. 

 
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