The journey continues this week for our “Safe and Inclusive Road Designs for Central Asia” project, with meetings in Uzbekistan and Tajikistan, following last week’s project launch in Kyrgyzstan.

The meetings are part of a new and transformative United Nations Economic and Social Commission for Asia and the Pacific (ESCAP) project to improve road design standards across the Central Asia Regional Economic Cooperation (CAREC) countries, being implemented by iRAP, Eastern Alliance for Safe and Sustainable Transport (EASST), and the International Road Federation (IRF).

Funded by the United Nations Road Safety Fund (UNRSF), the project focuses on three pilot countries – Kyrgyzstan, Tajikistan, and Uzbekistan – and over the next 18 months will take a collaborative approach to meticulously review, update, and improve local road design standards.

The project team, including iRAP’s Global Project Director Julio Urzua  and Global Operations Manager Luke Rogers, has travelled to each of the pilot countries to meet with local partners and relevant government agencies to introduce the project and explore local needs in terms of road design and mobility.

With an Uzbekistan focus, meetings occurred in Tashkent and Samakand:

And followed in Dushanbe, Tajikistan:

On launching the project, Ulan Sultanov, Deputy Director of the Kyrgyz Road Transport Project under the Ministry of Transport and Communication said, “We welcome this project with great enthusiasm. At the moment, we use both old and new standards on road design in our work. We need to review and refine these standards, while also preparing new standard documents that address all issues, including safety and inclusivity for vulnerable road users.”

iRAP’s Global Project Director Julio Urzua said, “This project is a great demonstration of partnership and collaboration for safer road design between international partners, experts and local teams from the Transport Ministries, design institutes, Police and local NGOs from the three participating countries.”

Read more on the project and see the Kyrgyzstan Launch photos here.

Follow the project journey on socials using #SafeRoads4CAREC.

Key members of the project team Dmitry Sambuk, Deputy Director, EASST; Luke Rogers, Global Operations Manager, iRAP; Julia Funk, Senior Programme Manager Senior and Head of Statistics, IRF; and Julio Urzua, Global Project Director, iRAP

Images credit: EASST