Civic forum seeks plan to lower road fatalities in election manifestos

As Bangladesh prepares for its next national election, the Bangladesh Jatri Kalyan Samiti has issued an urgent call for all political parties to include concrete, actionable plans in their election manifestos to curb the country’s spiralling road accident fatalities and crippling traffic congestion — crises that have claimed tens of thousands of lives and cost the economy nearly Tk 100,000 crore annually. Speaking at a discussion on “Passenger Rights Day” held at the Dhaka Reporters Unity on Saturday morning, the association’s Secretary General, Md Mozammel Haque Chowdhury, revealed that over the past 11 years, 86,690 people have lost their lives in road accidents, while another 1,503,257 have been injured. He stressed that these are not just statistics — they represent...