Chandigarh, February 17: Punjab Transport Minister Ms. Razia Sultanadirected the concerned officials to rectify all the black spots in the state asblack spot management is crucial for road safety to save the precious humanlives from road accidents, while emphasizing that all concerned departmentsshould make concerted efforts to achieve a 50 per cent reduction in roadfatalities and injuries on the line of 2nd Decade of Action for Road Safety2021-2030 by the UN.
While addressing the concluding day event of the NationalRoad Safety Month (18 January to 17 February, 2021) here at Punjab Bhawan onWednesday, the Transport Minister asked the officials that a dedicated laneshould be designated for heavy vehicles and to avert the road fatalitiestipper, trailers and other heavy duty vehicles should not be parked on the roadsides. She also directed traffic police to initiate a special drive forchecking of driving licences of heavy vehicle drivers. “We should shun thebehavior of “celebrate and forget” approach. The Road Safety campaign shouldnot be confined to just a month. The awareness activities should be carried onwith the same zeal beyond the month”, she added.
The exercise of identifying the new black spots in Punjabwill be completed in the next six months, said the Traffic Advisor Punjab Dr.Navdeep Asija, adding that Punjab has identified 391 Accidental Black Spots in12 districts, out of total 391 black spots, 264 black spots are on NationalHighways, 64 black spots are on State Highways/ ODR/MDR, 6 black spots are onLink roads, 54 black spots are on Municipal roads and 3 black Spots on otherroads. For each of the police district, the list of 1st order, 2nd order, 3rdorder, 4th order and 5th order black spots identified as part of scientificstudy "Accident Black Spot Identification & Rectification Program onVarious Highways/Roads of Punjab” out of which 100 black spots on NationalHighways have been rectified and 32 on State Roads are under improvementimplementation. Punjab is the first state in the north region to complete thisexercise at this scale, he added.
Presenting the status report on the Road Safety Month, 2021in Punjab, Principal Secretary Transport Mr. K. Siva Prasad said that many roadsafety seminars, workshops and awareness camps were organized in the differentparts of the state. He said that a protocol has been set and in coordinationwith civil and police and other related departments to end the menace of straycattle related accidents. All concerned parties are working to make suchaccidents minimum through Public Participation. He thanked the Punjab Police,all NGOs, other departments and DCs and the Education Department for making ita successful outreach programme.
Director General, Lead Agency Road Safety Punjab Mr. R.Venkat Ratnam said that road safety is not a monthly activity, the departmentsare regularly working on road safety throughout the year. He said that theyhave submitted the proposals amounting to Rs. 33.78 crore, in which major focushas been given to Black spots improvements, Speed guns, Installation of CCTVcameras, Funds to District Road Safety Committees, Funds for Crash Investigationand capacity building for the state. The entire expenditure will be madethrough a non-lapsable Road Safety Fund.
During the meetings of the Road Safety Council majordecisions have been taken to revamp overall road safety scenario in the state.NHAI Advisor Mr. Kahan Singh Pannu and Mr R.P Singh, Regional Officer,NHAI assured the minister that all theblack spots on national highways in the state will be rectified by the yearend.
Additional Director General of Police Dr. Sharad SatyaChauhan said that a total 5194 road accident cases registered in the stateduring 2020, in which 3866 people lost their lives and 2934 got seriouslyinjured. This is 18% reduction in road accidents and 15% less than in terms ofroad accident fatalities from previous year i.e. 2019.