Pokhara, August 19

Number of people losing their lives in road accidents went up in the western region in the last fiscal.

As many as 537 persons from 16 districts of the region were killed, while 3,076 persons sustained injuries in 2,152 road accidents last fiscal, according to DIG Kamal Singh Bam at Western Regional Police Office, Pokhara.

He added that 456 persons were killed and 2,400 people sustained injuries in as many as 3,538 accidents in the previous fiscal. “Road accidents are increasing at an alarming rate. We have been working to minimise such incidents,” said DIG Bam.

“Many accidents take place because roads in the rural areas are carelessly constructed while vehicles ply in a haphazard manner. There is no monitoring from the government side either. Lack of parking facility persists and vehicles carry passengers beyond their capacity,” he said.

According to recent data, the region has 13,500 km of roads. Nawalparasi tops the list with 2,720 km of roads followed by 2,018 km in Tanahun and 500 km in Kaski. However, only a negligible number of traffic police personnel are deployed in the areas to regulate the flow of vehicles.

“Only 340 traffic police personnel are serving in all districts of the region. As many as 40 others are being trained and will later be deployed where necessary,” informed DIG Bam.

Of late, reflection mirrors have been installed at the bends along the highway. The mirrors have been installed along Syangja-Palpa road section, Nawalparasi section of Mahendra Highway and Tanahun road section of Prithvi Highway.

“Though the police administration didn’t have budget, we collected funds from the locals for the purpose,” said DIG Bam. They have also been using radar guns to catch speeding drivers.

“We are optimistic that the number of accidents will go down as we have launched various awareness raising campaigns targeting the drivers of state owned office vehicles. Issuance of driving license has also been tightened of late. However, traffic management has been emerging as a great problem in the region. Concerned stakeholders need to figure out best possibles measures to curb road accidents,” said DIG Bam.