Skip to main content

Nepal safety issues

The authorities in Nepal are establishing a road safety plan that is intended to reduce the country’s annual injury and fatality rates. Nepal’s Traffic Police Directorate recently announced figures showing that of the 8,503 accidents recorded in the 2010-2011 financial year, 4,914 occurred within the Kathmandu Valley. The police also said that factors causing accidents included the poor state of gravel and surfaced roads and inadequate traffic signs. Potholes are a major problem on Nepal’s road system accor
April 27, 2012 Read time: 2 mins
Nepal is investing in roads and hopes to boost safety. Picture: Nick Goodwin
The authorities in Nepal are establishing a road safety plan that is intended to reduce the country’s annual injury and fatality rates.

Nepal’s Traffic Police Directorate recently announced figures showing that of the 8,503 accidents recorded in the 2010-2011 financial year, 4,914 occurred within the Kathmandu Valley. The police also said that factors causing accidents included the poor state of gravel and surfaced roads and inadequate traffic signs. Potholes are a major problem on Nepal’s road system according to the police, as well as reducing traffic flow and increasing congestion.

Officials at Nepal’s 2437 Ministry of Physical Planning and Works said that poor road conditions are the result of government policy as well as the long tender process for repairing and improvement of potholes. However, the Ministry of Physical Planning and Works says that there has been progress in maintaining 7000m2 of potholed roads within the Kathmandu Valley and some 5000m2 elsewhere in the country. But because of the focus on reducing potholes, improved signage has moved down the priority list.

Due to the increase in road accidents along the six lane Kathmandu-Bhaktapur road section, one of the local hospitals nearby has carried out a programme focussing on how drivers follow road rules.

Meanwhile the authorities in urban Kathmandhu have been removing roadside advertising hoardings that proliferate in the city. These cause driver distraction and have been attributed as factors in many accidents. In addition, Nepal’s Home Ministry has opted to tackle safety problems arising from vehicles being overloaded with passengers. This has been identified as a major factor in high injury and fatality rates in specific accidents as well as being a factor in causing individual incidents.

Related Content

  • TISPOL 2017: Europe’s road safety record suffers as austerity bites hard
    December 21, 2017
    Police budgets are being slashed, staff numbers are falling and Europe’s long-term trend towards ever-fewer road deaths has ground to a halt. Does Europe’s road network face a far more dangerous future? Geoff Hadwick reports from TISPOL 2017 in Manchester, UK. Europe’s road safety record is under threat. Lower and lower funding levels have become a very serious, and very worrying, problem for the EU’s traffic police bosses. They know that they must find new ways to focus road users on changing their beha
  • Tunnel inspections reveal safety compliance need
    April 10, 2012
    Results show the state of Europe's tunnel infrastructure at its 'most sublime and most depressing quality' as Patrick Smith reports
  • Tunnel inspections reveal safety compliance need
    May 9, 2012
    Results show the state of Europe's tunnel infrastructure at its 'most sublime and most depressing quality' as Patrick Smith reports. EuroTAP [European Tunnel Assessment Programme] 2010 has unveiled the results of inspections conducted earlier this year in 26 major tunnels in 13 European countries. The on site inspections, carried out between 12 April and 20 May, 2010, are said to indicate that an "alarming number of operational tunnels across Europe will not be ready to comply with EU tunnel safety rules wh
  • Mexico introduces new professional roles to address road safety
    June 24, 2013
    *Ana Maria de la Parra introduces the new external road operation supervisors and fatal accident appraisers who could make a vital contribution to improving the efficiency and safety of highways in middle-income countries like Mexico. Sometimes it is difficult to pin down the perception of a country like Mexico in the popular international mindset. Visitors travelling to Mexico City for the first time are often amazed by its size. They are also frequently taken aback by how unexpectedly advanced it is in te