OIL tanker accidents, like the one that recently occurred in Bahawalpur, occur on the National Highway around the year, but our government and the higher ups tend to forget these incidents. The horrific scale of this recent tragedy, however, was difficult to ignore.

Thousands of oil tankers are driven across the country every day. These tankers are potential fire bombs to the many commuters on the National Highway. The government must initiate a campaign to prevent such future incidents from occurring.

To this effect, I suggest that a separate lane for oil tankers should be built along the National Highway on an urgent basis, or that oil should be supplied through oil pipelines rather than tankers.

Muneer A. Rajput

Mirpurkhas

Published in Dawn, July 5th, 2017