Nepal’s road safety awareness programme is now commencing

A half day seminar has been run in Nepal with aim of reducing road fatalities. The seminar focussed on the Role of Roads Board Nepal in creating road safety awareness. This event was set up by the Road Board Nepal, a government agency established under the Road Board Act 2002. The agency has the aim of providing a sustainable fund for planned maintenance of the roads in association with local NGOs; Nepal Forum for Rural Transport and Development (NFRTD) and Nepal Road Safety Society. Engineer Ramesh Bastola, executive director of Roads Board Nepal, highlighted the safety measures and the awareness programmes initiated by the Roads Board Nepal. The associated organisation president engineer Neeraj Shah, a former government employee at DOLIDAR and a president of the NRFDIT also unveiled the objectives of a coming safety seminar. The proposed international seminar on road safety for Nepal is planned for November 13th 2013 and Shah gave a brief on the association plan and UN policy on road safety measures. Nepalese engineer Dr Surya Raj Acharya presented slides focused on new perspectives for sustainable transport in developing countries. Tulasi Prasad Sitaula, secretary at the Ministry of Physical Infrastructure and Transport, gave a brief on the government plans for road safety issues. Sitaula also discussed trauma centres for crash victims and suggested that the group hold various interaction events before launching the proposed international seminar. Dinkar Sharma, director general of the Department of Road discussed the Kathmandu sustainability project, with awareness about road safety, and also highlighted the remarkable achievement in Kathmandu Road Drive expansion of implementing quality footpaths, the vehicle management policy, the Kathmandu Metro and traffic discipline. Other speakers included Hariom Shrivastav, joint Secretary at the Ministry of Physical Infrastructure and Transport, who highlighted issues regarding road furniture. The event was closed by Dr Jagdish Chandra Pokharel, former vice chairman of the National Planning Commission, Nepal. Dr Chandra highlighted the safety issues and the support for the international program. Altogether 50 participants from different sector public, private and government sectors took part and discussed various issues including road laws, motorcycle fatalities and road safety education.