Bangladesh reconstitutes district, metropolitan and upazila road safety committees nationwide

The Road Transport and Highways Division has reconstituted the District, Metropolitan and Upazila Road Safety Committees for every district, every metropolitan area and every upazila crossed by a national or regional highway. The three orders — 35.00.0000.020.006.038.21(Ask-1)-523, -524 and -525 — are dated 30 Bhadra 1433 (14 September 2026) and were published in The Bangladesh Gazette (Registered No. DA-1, No. 41 of 2026) on Thursday, 8 October 2026, Section I, pages 877-880.

The division acted on decisions of the 8th, 15th and 29th meetings of the National Road Safety Council — the 10th, 15th and 29th for the upazila tier — and on an instruction from the Prime Minister’s Office (memo No. 03.04.0000.069.06.003.26-60, dated 18 August 2026). All three notifications were issued by order of the President and signed by Md. Jasim Uddin, Assistant Secretary of the Road Transport and Highways Division, Ministry of Road Transport and Bridges.

The 2023 panels are scrapped: notification 35.00.0000.020.006.038.21(Ask-1)-776 of 26 October 2023 (district), -777 of 26 October 2023 (metropolitan) and -807 of 9 November 2023 (upazila) are cancelled.

District committees: deputy commissioners in the chair

Each district committee is chaired by the Deputy Commissioner and includes:

• the Superintendent of Police, the Civil Surgeon and one Highway Police representative;
• the Mayor of the district sadar municipality and the Upazila Nirbahi Officer, who chairs the upazila committee;
• the Executive Engineer or Sub-divisional Engineer of the Roads and Highways Department and the Executive Engineer of the Local Government Engineering Department;
• the District Education Officer, the Deputy Director of the district social services office and the District Information Officer;
• the President or Secretary of the district press club, one Chamber of Commerce representative and up to four representatives of schools, colleges, universities and polytechnic institutes;
• the District Coordinator of BRAC, a representative of Nirapad Sarak Chai and three local dignitaries, including one woman;
• two representatives of TUI-licensed road transport owners’ associations (one passenger, one goods) and two of IRO-licensed workers’ organisations (one passenger, one goods).

The member-secretary is the Deputy Director, Assistant Director (Engineering) or Motor Vehicle Inspector of the Bangladesh Road Transport Authority for the relevant circle.

Metropolitan committees: police commissioners in the chair

The metropolitan committees are chaired by the Police Commissioner of the relevant metropolitan area. Their members include one representative each of the Divisional Commissioner or Deputy Commissioner, the Divisional Director (Health), the city corporation, the Dhaka Transport Coordination Authority or the Chittagong, Khulna, Rajshahi and Cox’s Bazar development authorities, the DDC (Traffic), the Roads and Highways Department, the Local Government Engineering Department, the district education and social services offices, the information office, the Chamber of Commerce, the district press club, schools, colleges, universities and polytechnic institutes, three local dignitaries including one woman, BRAC, Nirapad Sarak Chai, the Metropolitan Red Crescent, TUI-licensed owners’ associations and IRO-licensed workers’ organisations. The member-secretary is the Director, Deputy Director or Assistant Director (Engineering) of BRTA in the relevant divisional office.

Upazila committees for highway upazilas

The upazila committees are chaired by the Upazila Nirbahi Officer and cover every upazila with a national or regional highway. Members include the Upazila Health and Family Planning Officer, the Officer-in-Charge of the relevant thana police station, the head of the trauma care centre where one exists, a Roads and Highways Department representative not below sub-divisional engineer, the Upazila Secondary Education Officer, the Upazila Social Services Officer, the Upazila Youth Development Officer, one Union Parishad chairman from a union with a highway or another risky road, up to one representative of schools, colleges and vocational institutes, three local dignitaries including one woman, one representative of a private road-safety organisation, the local BRAC manager and a BRTA representative not below motor vehicle inspector or assistant director (engineering). The member-secretary is the Upazila Engineer of the Local Government Engineering Department.

Meetings, duties and reporting

The district and metropolitan committees implement the National Road Safety Council’s directives, coordinate road safety work, mark hazardous highway stretches, run awareness campaigns for the public, pedestrians, students, transport owners and workers, collect data and report regularly to the council; the metropolitan committees also fix and enforce vehicle movement schedules. The upazila committees implement directives of the council and the district committee, arrange treatment and transport for accident victims and inform their families, identify risky road stretches, collect and classify data and submit monthly reports to the district committee.

District and metropolitan committees must meet at least once every two months and upazila committees at least once every three months, with urgent meetings possible at any time; the district and metropolitan committees may co-opt up to two members.

With road crashes a persistent cause of death and injury nationwide, the orders place local administrations, police, health, education, transport owners and workers and road users on a single reporting chain running from the upazila to the National Road Safety Council.

Source: The Bangladesh Gazette (বাংলাদেশ গেজেট), Registered No. DA-1, No. 41 of 2026, 8 October 2026, Section I, pp. 877-880 (official references: 35.00.0000.020.006.038.21(Ask-1)-523, 35.00.0000.020.006.038.21(Ask-1)-524 and 35.00.0000.020.006.038.21(Ask-1)-525).