Competency of Rural Roads Achieving Targets 3.6 and 11.2 of the Sustainable Development Goals in Bangladesh

Abstract

Road Transportation is the major mode of transportation and is recognized as a significant contributor to the socio-economic development in many low-and-middle-income countries like in Bangladesh. In Bangladesh, this transport system is now responsible for carrying about 70% of passengers and 60% of freights and increasing the share of modalities day by day with the development of road transport systems. The responsibility for the improvement and maintenance of the total road network of the country is assigned mainly to the Roads and Highways Department (RHD) and the Local Government Engineering Department (LGED). But the road network belongs to LGED termed as “Rural Road” which is about 94% of the total road length and in the meantime, more than 40% is improved by mainly flexible pavements. However, the state of road traffic safety on many improved rural roads is poor due to narrow carriageways and shoulders along with roadside hazards. On the other hand, the overall road traffic safety in Bangladesh is poor compared to the developed and motorized countries. However, according to the police report, about 4000 people die and another 5000 people become injured by road traffic crashes in each year in Bangladesh but the World Health Organization estimates the fatalities are more than 25,000. However, Bangladesh has committed to achieving the targets 3.6 and 11.2 of the Sustainable Development Goals (SDG) assigned by the United Nations (UN) in 2015 concerning the improvement of road traffic safety by halving 50% of fatalities by 2030. Therefore, the achievement of the above two targets depends on the improvement of road traffic safety on highways as well as rural roads. This research highlights the barriers to improving the safety of rural roads to achieve the above two targets by 2030.