Editorial
Hard drive
Alarming numbers of road accidents can be reduced with crackdown on transport ‘cartels’It is common for trucks and buses to meet with accidents on Nepal’s mountain roads and cause tremendous loss of life. Over 2,000 people were killed in road accidents in the fiscal year 2015-16. In the last two weeks alone, more than 60 people have died in road accidents.
While the number of road accidents has always been high in Nepal, it appears that their number has been increasing in recent years. There are major reasons behind this. Much of Nepal’s terrain is exceedingly difficult and the roads are poor. There has been a great increase in the number of vehicles plying long-distance routes, leading to a corresponding rise in the number of accidents.
Most important, however, are factors that fall directly within human control. There is a tremendous degree of negligence involved, and for this the owners of transport vehicles and cartels (or ‘syndicates’ which enjoy political protection) that run them are to blame. The private cartels that run public transport across Nepal are fiercely protective of their turf and strongly resistant to any efforts to regulate it. They form a closed network and focus a lot of their energy on keeping out new entrants from the industry. These factors have led to a high degree of negligence that puts the lives of passengers at risk.
The resistance of the transport industry to any
regulation has meant that long-distance buses are often in very poor shape, with many of their components at the verge of failure. Transport entrepreneurs are keen to squeeze as much profit out of their vehicles as possible and hence overloading buses and trucks with passengers and cargo is very common. Many bus drivers drive recklessly, often under the influence of intoxicants such as alcohol. They often try to overtake other vehicles on narrow and difficult mountain roads. All of these factors add up to form a recipe for disaster.
Over the years, the government has come up with various policies and issued directives to improve road safety. Most recently, the Ministry of Home Affairs (MoHA) is planning to issue directives to district administrations across the country instructing them to prohibit vehicles from carrying excessive numbers of passengers or loads, ensure that there are two drivers on long-distance buses, and prevent large vehicles from moving on narrow roads.
These directives are essential and it is good that MoHA has issued them. However, the problem is not in the instruction but in the enforcement. And historically, the state has been severely lacking in this regard. In order for things to change, the government will have to enforce rules upon the cartels running the transport industry firmly, including by issuing
punishments if necessary. This also means political party leaders, right from the districts to the central level, have to free themselves up from buying into the cartels themselves.