Transport Minister Chandra Mohan Patowary Reviews Road Safety Measures In State

GUWAHATI: The State Road Safety Council, under the chairmanship of Transport Minister, Chandra Mohan Patowary, held a meeting at Janata Bhawan, Dispur on Saturday. The Minister reviewed the action taken by the stakeholders on implementation of Road Safety Laws in the State.

In the discussion, the council was appraised that the total number of accidents and fatalities from April to May, 2018 were 1830 and 548, which have come down to 1370 (- 25.15%) and 533 ( - 2.74%) from April – May, 2019 respectively.

The road accident data of 2018 show that 3963 accidents (48.05%), 3389 injuries (45.95%) and 1541 fatalities (51.95%) occurred in the National Highways. In this regard, Minister Patowary directed the officials of NHAI and NHIDCL to make rumble strips in the identified Black Spots as well at the junctions of State Highways and National Highways, with adequate signages and lighting, to reduce the fatality figures.

Minister Patowary stated that all district hospitals and sub-divisional hospitals will be designated as Trauma Care Centre and the doctors and paramedic staff will be trained through AIIMS, New Delhi to cater to the emergency services.

Commissioner, Transport, Virendra Mittal proposed several measures as part of a roadmap for road safety in the state. He informed the Council that Automated Driving Testing Track (ADTT) will be established in Guwahati, Dibrugarh, Nalbari, Jorhat, etc. 348 numbers of e-Challan devices are being procured by the Transport Department. A pilot project will be undertaken in Kamrup district before statewide roll-out.

The Transport Commissioner also explained various steps taken against the road safety offenders, wherefrom a total of 6,683 driving licenses were suspended and Rs. 7 cores, 13 lakhs fine (CF) was realized for the fiscal year April 2018 to March 2019.

The meeting also stressed on creating public awareness to reduce road accidents and mishaps. For the current financial year, the vision is to percolate awareness down to the grass-root level so that there is permanent knowledge in the civil society, especially children on necessity of following the norms of road safety in order to avoid loss of lives and to depute campus ambassadors of Road Safety in all schools, colleges and universities. The Council also discussed at length on engineering measures required in the already identified black spots as per road safety audit recommendation. Transport Minister Chandra Mohan Patowary directed the concerned officials to take necessary measures in respect of road engineering, emergency services and public awareness to ensure maximum road safety in the State, a press release stated. Senior officials from transport, police, railways, PWD, NHAI, NHIDCL were present in the meeting.

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