At least 3,4,37 people were killed in 2,122 road accidents in the country last year, most of them on highways in northern districts, RCCI President Mostafa Azad Choudhury Babu said at a view exchange meeting with journalists, held at the RCCI auditorium here.

He quoted from the annual report of Human Right Bureau to say that deaths from accidents are increasing every year.

Loss of so many lives in road accidents is only due to government's negligence in checking those and corruption in issuing fake driving licences, he said.

The RCCI president regretted that they put forward suggestions to the communication ministry three years back to control road accidents in northern districts but the government has not taken a any step to implement those.

The proposals include construction of four- lane highways with road dividers, eviction of illegal structures and markets from roadsides, training for drivers at vocational institutes, steps against wreckless driving and punishment for offenders.

The chamber leaders said that most of the road accidents in the country occur due narrow highways without concrete dividers.

There is no other alternative to building four-lane highways to avoid head-on collusion of vehicles.

Mostafa Azad said, the number of accidents is more in the northern districts as most of the roads and highways there are narrow and have no dividers.

If there is fund constraint, the government can allow construction of four-lane highways by big Bangladeshi and foreign transport companies on build-operate-transfer basis, he suggested.

The companies would realise their investment from toll collected from vehicles, he said.

RCCI leaders Sha Mohammed Salekh, Shahajahan Babu, and Mostafa Ahmed also spoke at the meeting.