4th Joint Coordinating Committee meeting of Dhaka Road Traffic Safety Project held

The fourth Joint Coordinating Committee (JCC) meeting of the Dhaka Road Traffic Safety Project (DRSP) was recently held in the capital aiming to ensure a safer traffic environment in Dhaka.

Dhaka Metropolitan Police (DMP) has been implementing the DRSP since March 2022 under a technical cooperation project supported by the Japan International Cooperation Agency (JICA) to strengthen the capacity of police towards realizing comprehensive road safety programmes in Dhaka, according to a media release on Friday.

DRSP Project director and Additional Commissioner of Police (Traffic) Md Munibur Rahman chaired the meeting, during which the Project Leader of JICA Expert Team (JET), Yoshihisa Asada presented the outline and the current status of the project, it said.

The PD underscored the importance of strong collaboration among all JCC stakeholders including the city corporations and road transport authorities to ensure a comprehensive safe traffic system in the capital.

“The main purpose of the project is to make the traffic condition easy for the city dwellers residing in Dhaka. We need to work with a positive mindset so that we can show the people the light at the end of the tunnel,” said Munibur.

During the JCC meeting, DMP high officials and JET members reported on the progress achieved in the last six months as well as the future activities on DRSP’s three outputs – 1) Traffic Safety Education, 2) Traffic Accident Report and 3) Traffic Regulation and Enforcement.

Additional Deputy Commissioner (Traffic Admin and Research), Kazi Romana Nasrin informed that for Output-1 the project has already conducted the Practical and Participatory Education Programme (PPEP) in three schools to raise awareness among children, and decided to expand the PPEP to schools across all traffic divisions in Dhaka.

She added that DMP and Sisimpur (SWB) also signed a memorandum of understanding (MoU) to work together to promote road safety awareness.

For Output-2, DMP’s System Analyst Sharmin Afroz said the project has enhanced the current data collection software, “Database and Analysis of Road Crash (DARC)”, and streamlined the data gathering process through the introduction of the “Responding Officer’s Observation Form (ROOF)”. This form can be digitally filled at the crash site via DARC’s mobile app, enabling the collection of GPS coordinate data and photos.

Last September, under Output-3, the DRSP implemented a pilot project on bus boarding and alighting at Kakoli Bus Layby in Banani with the aim to change the mindset of both bus drivers and bus passengers in recognizing the importance of traffic rules and choosing safe behavior, reported Joint Commissioner (Traffic-North) Abu Rayhan Muhammad Saleh.

After the piloting, a survey found that 97 percent of the bus users recognized that the safety at the site had increased and expressed a desire for it to continue. The project has plans for another pilot project focusing on Safer Pedestrian Crossing, he said.

Additional Deputy Commissioner Tejgaon Jahangir Alam presented the results of the training in Hyderabad, India, while Deputy Commissioner (Media and Public Relations) Mohammad Faruk Hossain highlighted DRSP’s public relations activities with a future plan to initiate a Media Fellowship programme on road safety.

Director of the Infrastructure Management Department of JICA headquarters Yasuhiro Suhara expressed his expectation that the valuable insights gained from the upcoming training in Japan would enable officials of DMP and other stakeholders to effectively apply Japanese traffic safety methods in Dhaka.

The meeting concluded with the expectation that the progress of planned activities will benefit the citizens and it will be reviewed at the next JCC meeting, scheduled in six months.