Korea International Cooperation Agency (KOICA) Bangladesh on Thursday held an information-sharing meeting virtually on a project titled “Improving the reliability and safety on national highway corridors of Bangladesh by introduction of ITS (Intelligent Transport Systems)”. The overall project aim is to make road transport infrastructure of Bangladesh more safe, reliable, and sustainable; use ICT for better, efficient and effective traffic management; enhance the institutional capacity of RHD for road and traffic management and discuss the statement of work, project scope, timeline, deliverables in the project and future implementation plans with the Roads and Highways Department (RHD). Also read: KOICA helped establish pillars of Digital Bangladesh: Zunaid palak KOICA will support a budget of $8.9 million from 2020-2023 for establishment of ITS master plan, architecture and standard, implementation of pilot project, capacity building of RHD, RTHD and other relevant organizations of the government of Bangladesh. Young-Ah Doh, County Director of KOICA said the transportation sector is the one of Korea’s development priority areas for Bangladesh. Through this comprehensive support from Republic of Korea, Bangladesh can develop road and safety master plan along with establishment of effective road management system which will reduce time and accidents for much-needed improved road conditions in the country, said KOICA. Also read:KOICA unveils multi-component cooperation aimed at youth entrepreneurship Md. Nazrul Islam,  Roads Transport and Highways Division secretary, and Md. Abdus Safur, Chief Engineer of Roads and Highways Department, laid emphasis on close partnership with KOICA. The Secretary said they have been working relentlessly to achieve the targets of Vision-2021, UN Sustainable Development Goals by 2030 and the goal of 2041, said a media release. He also said this is a dream project for Bangladesh as ITS would be implemented for the very first time. He requested to prepare a time-bound action plan to achieve the project goal. Read KOICA provides online training on eye disease prevention for Ophthalmologists in Bangladesh

The World Bank and BRAC signed a Memorandum of Understanding on Saturday to collaborate for improving road safety in Bangladesh. An online event titled ‘Road Safety Collaboration: Reducing road fatalities 50% by 2030’ was  inaugurated by Road Transport and Bridges Minister Obaidul Quader. He also inaugurated a Road Safety Awareness Campaign along the 48 KM Jessore-Jhenaidah corridor as part of the partnership, according to a press release. The campaign will complement the World Bank supported WeCARE project, which was approved in June 2020 and aims to upgrade the existing two-lane highway, Bhomra-Satkhira-Navaron, and Jahore-Jhenaidah to a safer four-lane highway. BRAC and the World Bank will partner together to promote safety for women in public transport systems and conduct training and skills building for drivers, including women drivers. BRAC’s driving school’s initiative ‘women behind the wheels’ has trained so far about 214 women as professional drivers. Globally, about 1.35 million people die every year in road accidents.

A trolley (power tiller with trailer) driver and his assistant were killed in a road crash on Kushtia-Ishwardi Highway in 10 Mile area of Bheramara upazila on Saturday morning.