‘Laws, implementation essential to bring down high road death rate’

Karachi
Road traffic injuries are a major public health and development problem which has a broad range of social and economic consequences on any country, Sharmila Faruqui, the Sindh CM’s Advisor on Culture and Tourism, said on Sunday.
Speaking about traffic death rates in Pakistan, Faruqui cited some alarmingly high figures depicting the problem in its entirety, as per which, the road traffic death rate per 100,000 people in Pakistan is 174 as compared to 30 in Sweden, 31 in the United Kingdom, 43 in Norway and Switzerland, 47 in Ireland, Germany and Denmark, 51 in Singapore, 52 in Japan, 54 in Spain, 61 in Australia, 62 in Canada, and 64 in France.
She said all five key risk factors – drunk driving, speeding, low use of helmets and seat belts, and lack of child restraint – were being committed by drivers across the country. Faruqui stressed the need for strict enforcement of traffic laws and cited some existing global laws for consideration. She informed the participants that around 39 percent of the world’s population – a total of 59 countries – has successfully implemented an urban speed limit of 50 km/h or less, with space for even more reduction.
According to Faruqui, the total road network in Pakistan is around 263,775 km, of which, around 70 percent was paved. However, road density in the country stands at 32 km, quite low in comparison with neighboring countries.

Pak-China corridor
While commending the performance of the National Highway Authority (NHA), Faruqui said it was rendering a vital contribution in improving the quality of roads network. She appreciated the NHA’s efforts to construct bridges across the River Indus, in addition to investing more towards infrastructure development.
She said that it was in order to ensure smooth and efficient movement of goods and passengers that the NHA now plans to develop the approximately 2,400 km long Pak-China Economic Corridor connecting Gwadar to Kashghar, along with the Karachi-Lahore Motorway.
She said the projects would open access for people to land areas and will bring more population into the stream of benefits which, in turn, will ensure the social uplift of people living along the corridor.
Faruqui concuded her speech on the note the opportunities and potential of the geo-strategic position of Pakistan can be realised by exploring its critical connectivity of land routes, coastal lines and pass through air routes which are endowed by favorable climate. — PPI