Tuhin Shubhra Adhikary

Bangladesh will observe the United Nations Global Road Safety Week this year for the first time aiming to raise awareness about road safety to prevent road accidents.

Fitness checks of all buses and trucks registered with BRTA Mirpur office are being done manually, as the only automated vehicle inspection system that had been working broke down three months ago.

One year has gone by but the family members of Rajib Hossain, who died after losing his hand that got stuck between two buses in the capital, neither got justice nor any compensation.

Around 90 percent buses of Suprobhat Paribahan had been operating without having necessary clearances that include route permits, fitness certificates and professional licences of the drivers, found a probe committee.

More than 70,000 vehicles have not had their fitness certificates renewed in 10 years, and many of them are on the road posing serious risks of accidents.

Despite measures taken by the government following an unprecedented student movement for road safety, the numbers of road crashes and fatalities had increased last year compared to those of the previous year.

Protests erupted in Dhaka University yesterday immediately after most of the prominent panels boycotted the Ducsu election citing mass irregularities.

Construction of a rail track around the capital is expected to begin in June next year, to further ease the city's perennial traffic woes, officials said.

The authorities on several occasions after 2010 Nimtoli fire urged the traders of Old Dhaka to relocate their chemical factories and warehouses from residential areas. But they did not pay heed to the repeated requests.

It seems nothing has changed in West Shaheednagar area of Old Dhaka.

After an inferno had claimed 124 lives in Old Dhaka's Nimtoli in 2010, the government took up four projects to relocate four types of industries -- chemical, plastic, printing and light electronics -- from this part of the capital.

After an inferno claimed 124 lives in Old Dhaka's Nimtoli in 2010, a monument was built at that place. The structure, named “Nimtoli Tragedy”, bears many inscriptions. One of them says it was built to raise awareness on fire and the dangers of storing chemicals in residential buildings.

Yusuf Kazi was sitting on a broken chair near the Dhaka Medical College morgue around 9:45am yesterday. He was wailing and talking on the phone.

The day has rolled past midday and Abdus Salam Azad is still searching for his younger brother. Fighting to hold back tears, he is looking for answers to convey to a 8-year-old child at home.

Enamul was living the tale of a struggling middle-class jobseeker, surviving on the income of his cousin and desperate to stand on his own feet. With him perishing in Chawkbazar fire, so does his dreams of a stable living and better life for his family hundreds of miles away.

The bustle and fuss around the chaotic Chawkbazar were dimming down to give way to the silence of street lamps, a few rickshaws clinking by and the bark of stray dogs. It was the usual late-night stroll back home for Dipu, except for that it wasn't.

Projects under the three Indian Lines of Credit worth around $7.5 billion are facing delays mainly due to technical and bureaucratic reasons, and both sides are responsible for this, officials said.

Two-thirds of Bangladesh Railway's 1,412 level crossings have no designated gatemen, resulting in increased rail-related fatalities.

Even as the authorities are removing illegal structures along roads and highways, illegal occupants continue to set up new ones.

Passengers may not get the best out of 600 new BRTC buses bought recently as the state-run corporation has a track record of ruining the vehicles well before their ages hit double digits.