Minister for Communications establishes Pakistan Road Assessment Program

Image caption: iRAP Acting CEO Greg Smith, Pakistan Minister for Communications Abdul Aleem Khan, and iRAP’s Global Projects Director Julio Urzua.

The National Highway Authority (NHA) today formally established the Pakistan Road Assessment Program (PakRAP), aimed at significantly reducing road crash death and injury on the nation’s roads.

The initiative was enacted in an agreement signed by Pakistan Minister for Communications, Abdul Aleem Khan and iRAP Acting CEO and Global Program Director, Greg Smith at the 4th Global Ministerial Conference on Road Safety in Morocco.

With the establishment of PakRAP, Pakistan joins Australia, Brazil, China, New Zealand, Mexico, Malaysia, Saudi Arabia, South Africa, Tanzania, Thailand, United Kingdom and United States with locally-led Road Assessment Programs (RAP).

Speaking at the Conference, Minister for Communications, Abdul Aleem Khan said, “Transportation effects the lives of everyone in Pakistan every day. The safety of our roads is of utmost importance.”

“The National Highway Authority is at the centre of efforts to ensure that we have a safe, efficient, reliable, and environmentally friendly highway and motorway network. The establishment of PakRAP is a key part of the strategy to put safety at the heart of road planning, design, construction and maintenance.”

iRAP Acting CEO and Global Program Director, Greg Smith said, “We’re incredibly proud to be working in partnership with the National Highway Authority to establish PakRAP and ensure that lives are not forever changed by preventable crashes.

“The PakRAP initiative will help to reduce deaths and serious injuries on Pakistan’s national highway network by systematically assessing risk on existing roads and road designs, and identifying safety shortcomings that can be addressed with practical road improvement measures.”

Early activities that supported the creation of PakRAP included a collaborative project involving the National Highway Authority (NHA), ChinaRAP and iRAP with funding support from the Asian Development Bank (ADB). This project involved performing safety assessments of some 10,000km of roads using the iRAP methodology and capacity building.

According to iRAP Safety Insights Explorer, by achieving United Nations Global Road Safety Performance Target 4, which would see most travel occurring on 3-star or better roads, Pakistan could prevent more than 9,000 deaths annually with an economic benefit of more than US $10 for each US $1 invested.

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