‘Improving road safety can accelerate economic growth’

The World Bank and the United Nations will continue working together with the Government of Bangladesh to improve road safety, Vice President for South Asia of the global financier, Hartwig Schafer said today.

“Road fatalities are more than personal tragedies, they undermine a country’s growth and human development. Like other countries, by improving road safety, Bangladesh can further reduce poverty and accelerate economic growth,” he said at an award ceremony where five winning teams of the World Bank-United Nations Road Safety Champions’ Video Competition were awarded at the World Bank’s Dhaka office.

The competition sought ideas to make Dhaka’s roads safer from young Bangladeshis between the ages of 18-23 and received an overwhelming response.

While congratulating the winners, Schafer added, “We all are very impressed with the creative, practical and scalable solutions for Dhaka’s road safety proposed by the contestants. These ideas are a testament that road safety crisis is preventable. The World Bank and the United Nations will continue working together with the Government of Bangladesh to improve road safety.”

The World Bank and the government of Bangladesh are discussing potentially $250 million of support for comprehensive road safety improvement.

“Road safety affects us all. With increasing number of motorised vehicles, road accidents have become the fourth leading cause of death of children between 5 and 14 in Bangladesh. So, road safety is very much a development agenda and we must act now,” said Mercy Tembon, World Bank Country Director for Bangladesh and Bhutan.

The competition was launched in September 2019 by the Honorable Finance Minister AHM Mustafa Kamal, MP, the UN Secretary-General’s Special Envoy for Road Safety Jean Todt, and Hartwig Schafer.

The contest called for participants to submit a 2-minute video responding to the question, “What would you change to make the roads in Dhaka safer?”

Key themes that emerged from the contest included: introducing separate bus lanes, mobile apps, smart buses, under-the-surface barricade system, speed camera, and limiting the number of bus trips and random parking to take or drop passengers through digital means.

The winners are:

First Prize: Kazi Md. Marfu-Um Abid, Farhana Haque, and Md. Fahimur Rahman Shuvo from Bangladesh University of Engineering and Technology (BUET)

Second Prize: Md. Fahmid-ul-Alam Juboraj, Farnaz Fawad Hasan, and Reshad Karim Navid from BRAC University

Third Prize: Md. Taufiquzzaman Pranto from Bangladesh University of Engineering and Technology (BUET)

First Runner-up: Prottoy Roy, Srishti Roy Chowdhury, and Fahim Faisal Raunaq from Bangladesh University of Engineering and Technology (BUET)

Second Runner-up: Abrar Mahmud Chowdhury, Naweed Kabir, and Md. Fahad Wafiq from BRAC University