ISLAMABAD: The Senate Standing Committee on Comm­unications on Tuesday criticised the National Highway Authority (NHA) after a report revealed that over 46,000 accidents took place on Balochistan highways over the last five years due to poor conditions, inadequate maintenance and heavy traffic.

The committee focused on alarming statistics of the Balochistan Medical Emergency Response Centre (BMERC) presented at the meeting by Senator Samina Mumtaz Zehri.

It highlighted the poor state of key roads, including Uthal (N-25), Kalat (N-25), Gwadar (N-10), and Killa Saifullah (N-50), covering a total of 620 kilometres. Ms Zehri said despite a hefty allocation of funds, the crucial N-25 has remained incomplete.

The meeting was informed that the NHA and the ministry of communications have failed to provide satisfactory answers about the use of funds for a decade.

The senators criticised the NHA for poor highway and road maintenance in Balochistan and questioned the establishment of toll plazas that do not benefit the local people.

The committee also discussed the role of over-speeding, overloading, and inadequate driver ethics in the accidents. The motorway police reported 422 accidents in the west zone since 2019, resulting in 304 deaths and 952 injuries.

However, members of the committee expressed scepticism about these factors being the sole reasons for the huge number of accidents and criticised the NHA for neglecting proper maintenance of highways.

The committee sought detailed review of the performance of the ministry of communications and the NHA.

Senator Tallal Badar lamented ineffective measures taken by the NHA to address road damage, despite an annual expenditure exceeding Rs15 billion.

The NHA chairman pointed out funding constraints impacting project development and maintenance, stating that only Rs2.4 billion was allocated for repairing 14,483km of road which was insufficient.

The committee chairman Senator Pervaiz Rashid stressed the need for finding effective solutions to prevent road accidents.

Published in Dawn, August 21st, 2024