Road safety in GIlgit-Baltistan
By : Sana Mehmood
People Perceptions
About Service of NATCO & Private Tours (Mashaburam, K2, Silk Route) in
Gilgit-Baltistan
According to the Gilgit-Baltistan Police (GBP)
an average 147 road accidents happen in a year, where 20 accidents are fatal. The
number of road accidents are high in three districts (Ghizer, Gilgit, Hunza) of
Gilgit-Baltistan.Most of accidents occurred on the KKH, where from 2014 to end
2018, total 363 vehicles were involved in road accidents. In Gilgit-Baltistan,
less than 20% of road accidents are registered with police. The registered
accidents cases from the year 2007-2018 were 1763, both fatal and non-fatal. Whereas
less than 5% of non-fatal accidents have been recorded or registered with
police.
Many studies included my own study, Mehmood
&Baig (2019) founded that majority of drives in Gilgit-Baltistan have less
update driving knowledge, negative attitude towards traffic laws and mal
practices towards road safety rules and regulations. Moreover, in
Gilgit-Baltistan 52% of drivers do not have even driving license, and no any
systematic mechanism of issuing of driving license, especially for the public
transport drivers, whoever have source in police and administration can obtain
driving license even without driving test.
Additionally, in Gilgit-Baltistan approximately
38% of vehicles are driving by young people under the age of 18 years. Moreover,
most of the young children of Higher Govt official are driving Govt Vehicles on
the roads of GB and no one can ask about the miss use of state property.
Govt and other responsible authorities need to
take actions to ban on the underage driving in GB.
Both Govt and Private Tour companies are trying
to provide their services to the people (both locals and non-locals) who travel
from GB to Islamabad and Islamabad to Gilgit-Baltistan. Both have their own
merits and demerits, where students and Govt officials are more preferred to
Govt own vehicles and business class and middle-class people are preferring the
private tours due to their comfortable services. Although there is less fare
(Rent) for students and Govt official (Pak-Army Personals) in Govt Own vehicles
(NATCO).
Data were collected from 475 people from all
three cities, Gilgit, Chilas and Skardu with the ratio of total road accidents
from the respective region. Few questions were asked to the respondents
regarding the services of both NATCO and selected three private tour companies collectively.
In the first two graphs showed the drivers perception about usage of drugs
(Alcohol, Cigar, Chirs, Gahnga, Naswaretc) and Police response towards these
driers and the rest of the graphs showed the people perception about the NATCO
and other selected private Tours.
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Conclusion
Conclusion is yours
The Writer is M.Phil.
Scholar Department of Sociology, Quaid-I-Azam University, Islamabad, and
principle investigator of road safety in Gilgit-Baltistan. Research interest is
public health, migration, population, and criminology. Reached at sanaraja310@gmail.com
03115828310
 in Gilgit-Baltistan By : Sana Mehmood){kind=link}