Tuhin Shubhra Adhikary

During its fourth meeting in February this year, a taskforce -- formed to bring down road crashes and bring discipline in the transport sector -- decided to form a committee to fix the economic service life of commercial vehicles, meaning for how many years they can be used.

As the authorities have failed to solve the ages-old perennial problems in the road transport sector, relatively new elements such as uncontrolled three-wheelers and motorcycles worsened the situation further, leading to a rise in crashes and fatalities.

Despite a sharp rise in vehicle registration in the last fiscal year, the number of vehicles seeking fitness clearance has dropped to a seven-year low during this period, raising serious concerns over road safety.

The government is likely to simultaneously open 100 new bridges at the end of this month, giving a big boost to the country’s road network.

Civil works of the country’s first underground metro rail will start in December this year, after a two-year delay.

The section 25 of ‍Road Transport Act-2018 clearly states that operation of unfit and rundown vehicles is a punishable offence and one may face up to six-month jail or Tk 25,000 fine or both.

The Dhaka-Tongi-Joydebpur railway expansion project is a glaring example of how poor planning, bad decisions and lack of coordination among different government agencies result in huge waste of public money.

When the first batch of buses, launched in December last year to introduce a new system in the capital’s bus service, are struggling to provide expected services, two more routes are going to be brought under the system from tomorrow. 

Nine years behind schedule and costing 61 percent more, the Third Shitalakkhya Bridge is finally going to be opened to the public tomorrow.

Despite the opening of the Padma Bridge and the Madhumati Bridge, the country will not be able to reap the maximum benefit of the enhanced connectivity as the 129km road from Faridpur’s Bhanga to Jashore’s Benapole is still not ready for increased vehicular movement.

Two more major roadway bridges will be opened to traffic on Monday (October 10, 2022), giving a big boost to the internal communication and beyond.

The Mass Rapid Transit Line-2 project, another metro rail line to be laid out from Gabtoli to Chittagong Road on Dhaka-Chattogram Highway, faces a setback with the authorities now seeking to change the way it would be financed and implemented.

Physical work to expand the Dhaka-Sylhet Highway is going to start finally, around seven years after a feasibility study was done to take up a project to improve connectivity between the capital and the southeast region, and beyond.

Bangladesh is going to start exporting goods to India by train for the first time in what is billed by many as a major boost to cross-border trade.

Bizarrely, a lawmaker with her personal assistant and Roads and Highways Department chief engineer and an additional chief engineer are going to the US and Canada to inspect equipment like pothole repair machines before they are shipped to Bangladesh.

Construction work of Bus Rapid Transit Line-3 Project resumed yesterday, after a girder segment fell on a car on August 15 killing five people that prompted the authorities to suspend work.

If a driver of a truck feels tired during his long journey on highways, there are no facilities for them to rest.

With 67 percent of the locomotives of Bangladesh Railway (BR) past their economic life, the state-run agency has turned to India for the second time in less than four years to mitigate its engine crisis.

The two buses that collided head-on in Rangpur early yesterday, leaving at least eight dead and over 50 injured, should not have been on the roads at all as neither had route permits. 

The implementing authority of the BRT Line-3 has so far spent Tk 5.57 crore for ensuring safety at the project site, but it has failed to do so. The deaths of five people last month are a testament to the failure.