NATIONAL 5 (Spotlight Weekly)]

Road Rage

As Kathmandu witnesses a surge in accidents, rash driving comes under sharp focus, as does the congestion in the city’s roads

By SANJAYA DHAKAL

May 22, 2001. It was around 5:30 in the morning. Two buses coming from the outskirts of Kathmandu were speeding neck-to-neck carrying scores of passengers. As they roared through New Baneshwor, the bus ahead suddenly slowed down. The one following it had to brake fast. As the Ba 1 Kha 6351 minibus coming from Panauti screeched to a halt, it swerved to the right and toppled in the middle of the road at Babar Mahal. Three people were killed on the spot. One died in the hospital. Thirteen were seriously hurt.

Trafic jam : Persisting problem

Welcome to the streets of Kathmandu valley. From overloading to rash driving, coupled with traffic congestion, the roads of the valley are gaining notoriety. In the last month alone, the city had to witness the needless deaths of more than 30 people in different road accidents.

"I find reckless driving as one of the main reasons for accidents in Kathmandu," said Keshav Prasad Baral, Senior Superintendent of Police at the Valley Traffic Police Office. "The lack of caution, patience and responsibility on the part of drivers lead to accidents," Baral said.

Stashing passengers way beyond the capacity of the vehicle is a regular phenomenon in the public transport system. Minibuses, whose normal carrying capacity is less than 30, are found ferrying 50 to 60 commuters at a time. "This over-loading is a dangerous trend."

Transport entrepreneurs encourage over-loading. They can make more money by ferrying passengers beyond capacity because, if caught, the fine they would be imposed would be a nominal one. "There are rules and regulations but the drivers find it convenient to flout them," Baral said. The most the traffic police could do is impose a fine of up to Rs 200 on offenders.

The traffic police say there is no special reason for the sudden surge in accidents. Most accidents in the valley happen at intersections. According to a report by the Traffic Engineering and Safety Unit at the Department of Roads, the frequency of accidents is at the peak at 4 pm followed by 8 am. Pedestrians are the ones who are most at risk, followed by motorcycle riders.

"We don’t have a planned road network. The intersections and crossroads are at dangerously close intervals. There are no sidewalks for pedestrians and even where there are sidewalks, people choose to walk in the road instead," said Sunil Poudel, chief engineer at the unit. The accidents in the valley, according to Poudel, are the result of over-speeding, over-loading and traffic indiscipline.

The places in Kathmandu that witness accidents frequently include Teen Kune, Koteshwor, Harihar Bhawan, Putali Sadak, Ring Road and many other intersections. While nocturnal mishaps are more frequent on the Ring Road, Kantipath and Naya Baneshwor observe accidents because of over-speeding.

Another disturbing situation about Kathmandu’s traffic is the burgeoning vehicle volume. More than 156,000 vehicles are registered in Bagmati zone alone (out of which more than 150,000 ply in the valley) from the countrywide total of 277,000. "The load carrying capacity of valley roads is around 120,000 vehicles per hour. But we find 40,000 more vehicles plying them," said Baral.

Baral suggests that there should be more stoppages and bays to give respite to the vehicle flow in the valley. "Otherwise, every time some vehicle slows down or stops, there is going to be trouble."

"We are seriously looking at the growing traffic accidents in the capital. All of the concerned agencies including the traffic police, Department of Road, Department of Transport Management, municipalities, bus entrepreneurs have to have better coordination to prevent accidents," said Sushil Agrawal, technical director at the Department of Transport Management.

The government also has formed a National Road Safety Committee headed by director-general of the Department of Roads to look after the traffic problems. But the committee is yet to show its results. Still coordination is as elusive as ever. While the Department of Transport Management registers vehicles, the regional police office gives license to drivers. It is the Department of Roads that is entrusted with the responsibility of posting road signs and municipalities that install street lamps. Finally, the traffic police are expected to manage the vehicles in the road, where the telecommunication and sewage offices take turns digging round the year.

Mass Transport SystemThe growing flow of passengers, too, is posing a big problem for Kathmandu, which has limited opportunities of expanding the road network. "It is next to impossible to expand the road network inside the valley. It is difficult to demolish houses to build roads. The only thing we can do is manage the existing network optimally," said Poudel.

According to Poudel, the ultimate solution to Kathmandu’s traffic problem is the mass transportation system. "Take for example the stretch of road at Kantipath, it is found that 126,000 people, on average, travel through it each day. Now imagine how many three-wheelers or microbuses you will need to ferry them. Unless mass transports like trolley-buses are introduced and other smaller vehicles barred, the problem of congestion and hence, accidents, will not abate." He recommends taking smaller vehicles to outskirts of valley, where the passenger flow is still not very big. Other experts, too, believe it is high time the government introduced a system of mass transportation in Kathmandu. All big cities in the world have the system, they say.

Last year the government did try to phase out the 20-year-old vehicles from valley but it later buckled under pressure from entrepreneurs. "It is silly of the authorities to try and bring such overt regulations. What they could have done is to introduce pollution-control measures and tax and other kind of disincentives to herd them away," said an environmentalist.

Traffic police have already indicated to the government officials that they would not be able to manage the roads if the authorities continued to register new vehicles without whisking away the old ones. That apart, there is an urgent need to modernize the traffic management system in Kathmandu. "At present we have traffic signs at only eight places in the valley, most of which are three-decades old. A study done two years ago had recommended posting such signs at 15 more places," said Poudel.

Recently, the Department of Roads had entered into an agreement with the Japan International Cooperation Agency to install traffic signs at ten places including Kalanki, Koteshwor, Teen Kune, Naya Baneshwor, Maiti Ghar, Putali Sadak, Keshar Mahal, Kalimati, among others. "Work will start this September and be completed within two years," he said.

As Kathmandu’s streets are turning into junkyard with an ever-increasing number of vehicles, the only way out through the present mess seems to be the introduction of mass transport system at the earliest.