Lately, road accidents are taking place almost every day. Thousands of people lose their lives in road crashes every year across the country. What are the factors causing these disasters? Why have the authorities failed to prevent them? The Post's Thira Lal Bhusal sat down with former secretary Arjun Jung Thapa, who was director general at the Department of Roads for years, to discuss the pressing issue.

Why are road accidents taking place so frequently in Nepal?

There is no one reason for road accidents. On the infrastructure front, factors like design, condition and geometry of a road are crucial. Putting sign boards along the roads and giving vital information about the particular location is necessary. Those signs should be placed properly so all driving vehicles and passengers can see them clearly. Some technical aspects, such as whether the superelevation is properly designed, particularly at sharp bends, matter greatly. These must be regularly monitored and corrected in time. Regular vehicle fitness tests are essential. Experienced and disciplined drivers are equally important to ensure road safety. Some accidents occur when drivers are unfamiliar with the roads. For instance, the accident that took place at Anbukhaireni of Tanahun district on Friday, killing 27 Indian nationals, might have been because of the driver’s lack of familiarity with the road condition. Yet another serious concern is the lack of road discipline. Those who come to Nepal with years-long experience of driving abroad fear driving because of motorists' reckless driving and lack of lane discipline. The recent accident at Jadibuti, killing one scooter rider, could have been avoided if proper lane discipline had been followed.

Reckless driving by motorcyclists has remained a big problem in our case. So, a separate lane should be designated for bikers. Similarly, lanes should be designated for vehicles based on their speed. But such rules are never followed seriously in our case. Traffic police have been entrusted with enforcing traffic rules but lack the human resources to enforce them effectively. We need an integrated and centrally controlled digital traffic light management system. We had experimented with a system as a trial for some time after 2015. We called a bid but couldn’t accept anyone as the bidders proposed more than the rate we had fixed. The project collapsed, and that system could never be revived. We badly lack technology in this sector. When we try to import technology, brokers get involved and ruin the entire process.

The condition of roads built haphazardly, mainly in the hills, is another major concern. What do you say about that?

We have built around 80,000 kilometres of road across the country. Of that, only around 14,000 kilometres fall under the jurisdiction of the road department. The rest of the road sections fall under the jurisdiction of various authorities, such as the Department of Local Infrastructure and provincial and local governments. The busiest roads are those under the Department of Roads. They are highways and regional roads. Only 50 percent of the roads overseen by the Department of Roads are blacktopped and are not maintained properly. Of the remaining 65,000 kilometres of road, only 4,000 kilometres are blacktopped. This means that the road condition across the country is poor and must be upgraded. The government will now develop the Kakarvitta-Gorusinghe section of the East-West Highway as a safe demonstration corridor. There will be proper infrastructure for crossings, grade-separated intersections, controlled entries, fencing for the safety from wild animals and crossings for wildlife. Local vehicles will run on service lanes. If it is developed as planned, it would be on par with Asian standards. Other roads in the pipeline will follow these standards. These criteria are being implemented while upgrading the Nagdhunga-Mugling road section as well. We have miles to go to upgrade our roads to international standards.

Why are we failing to make quality roads?

We can’t build our roads according to the original design. At times, locals obstruct road construction and force us to change the alignments. Then, we have to build them based on the availability of the land.

Are our rural roads fit from the engineering perspective?

Around 35,000 kilometers out of the 65,000 kilometers of roads that don’t fall under the jurisdiction of the Department of Roads are built randomly. Local leaders, influential individuals, and bulldozer operators fix the alignments of such roads.

How can we rectify the malpractices in this sector?

We need to activate the National Road Safety Council urgently. Officials from all the concerned departments and representatives from various stakeholders should sit together in this body and find solutions. Also, coordination has become more complicated in the federal system. For instance, highways are under federal jurisdiction, transport management on highways falls under provincial authority, while road management is under federal jurisdiction. Therefore, an effective coordinating body has become a must. Otherwise, we can’t control the increasing trend of deaths in road accidents. At least 1,700 people lost their lives in 2013, and the then government set a target to reduce it by at least 50 percent by 2020. Instead, the yearly death toll has crossed 2,800 now.

While it takes years to complete road upgrading tasks, construction materials are left unmanaged and scattered, making driving along the road very difficult and dangerous. Can’t such things be improved?

Contractors are powerful because of their political connection with influential leaders including prime ministers and ministers. Civil servants can’t be assertive when the contractors get political protection. At times, they try to use force to coerce government officials. If the situation is not going in their favour, they provoke locals with a plan to get extension in their contract citing local unrest.

Experts say that the government is also to blame as it doesn’t carry out development projects properly. Do you agree?

I worked for three decades in government agencies until a few months ago. What I found is that one government devises specific policies, plans and initiates certain projects but successive governments stop them. The new leadership starts its own plans and projects. Then, the contractors don’t get their payment. This is the other side of the story. Another problem is that our ministers, lawmakers and leaders show interest in the projects that deserve the least priority while important projects don’t get attention. For instance, around 30 kilometers of Arniko Highway, which connects Nepal with China, has been badly damaged. This is a very important road for the country. Can’t the government repair and maintain a 30-kilometer section of a highway? It requires just around Rs3 billion whereas leaders have allocated over Rs11.5 billion in the projects of personal interests of leaders. Around Rs4 billion has been allocated under lawmakers’ constituency development programmes and additional Rs5 billion has been earmarked for local bridges. We have allocated around Rs60 billion for non-important projects but we have ignored a crucial road, Arniko Highway, which was built with the support of our neighbour China in the 1960s. Thus we have given unnecessary importance where it doesn’t deserve while ignoring vital development projects. The road accidents are directly or indirectly linked to the government’s wrong policies and plans.

Development projects are sometimes said to have failed due to rivalry between some leaders. Do you have any such experience?

I will give you an example. In the Biratnagar-Bathnaha cross-border rail project, we had to build over 13 kilometers of the railway. It was around four to five years ago. We cleared over 11 kilometers but locals protested in the remaining section where a station was planned. The locals obstructed work there even as 85 percent of the money for land acquisition had already been distributed. Later, we found that the then minister Aman Lal Modi had provoked the locals to demand for additional money. He demanded a ‘special rate for his men’. But the laws don’t allow it.

Some experts argue that to upgrade the quality of our roads, we need to make this sector competitive and, for that, we have to allow the private sector to develop projects. Is it viable?

The government is hindering the private sector from entering into this business. They don’t invest without assured returns. They need roads like Kathmandu-Tarai Expressway. The government called for proposals in the build-operate-transfer (BOT) model for this project. They were interested. But the government simultaneously allowed a company to build the Kathmandu-Tunnel Road in the same area. Then the investors felt a risk to invest there. But, the company couldn’t continue the tunnel project. Private sector should be welcomed in this sector but we should create a conducive environment for that. Bangladesh and India have built infrastructure projects under the BOT model. We can do it as well.

What do you think about the jurisdictional dispute over the New Road stretch between the Kathmandu Metropolis and the Department of Roads? Who should maintain this road?

All the roads within the metropolis fall under the local government’s jurisdiction, as the constitution clearly states. The federal department is managing the roads with the understanding that the local governments are not efficient at maintaining them for now. If a local unit wants to maintain a certain road section on its own, the department should allow it without any dispute. Both sides showed childish behaviour while handling the New Road case.