The District Traffic Police Office in Jhapa has introduced a time-card system with effect from Sunday in a bid to control road accidents in the district. The traffic office implemented the time-card system for vehicles running along the Jhapa section of the East-West Highway.

According to the data of the District Traffic Police Office, a total of 203 vehicles were involved in road accidents that killed 38 people in the district in the past six months. Eighty-five people were killed in 348 road accidents in the last fiscal year.

“Overspeeding is one of the main reasons behind road accidents,” said Inspector Hom Adhikari, chief at the District Police Office. “We hope that the introduction of the time-card system will curb road accidents caused by overspeeding.”

According to the time-card system, passenger vehicles should adhere to the speed limit mentioned in the time-card while moving along the 55-kilometre road section of the East-West Highway in Jhapa. A vehicle should take at least 30 minutes to travel along the 17km-long Kakadbhitta-Birtamod road section, and an hour to commute along the 38km road connecting Birtamod to Tarabari in Damak.

The traffic office has set up its desks in Kakadbhitta, Birtamod and Damak to issue and check time-cards.

According to Sub-Inspector Narayan Acharya, vehicles entering Jhapa should get their time cards stamped in Tarabari while the vehicles setting off from Bhadrapur, Birtamod and Shanishchare should get their time-card stamped in Birtamod.

Nara Bahadur Adhikari, a driver of a passenger bus, said the system might help in controlling road accidents.

“This is a good system if followed diligently. Everybody stands to gain from it,” he said.

The traffic police said around 2,500 vehicles move along the Jhapa section of the East-West Highway on a daily basis.