IEP Chandigarh, December 14
A meeting of the State Road Safety Council was held today under the chairmanship of Haryana Transport Minister, Sh. Mool Chand Sharma at Haryana Niwas. Addressing the meeting, Principal Secretary, Transport Department, Sh. Navdeep Singh Virk informed about the number of deaths and injuries due to road accidents in the last five years. It was apprised that till November 2022 there were 9,951 road accidents, in which 4,516 people lost their lives and 8,447 people were injured.
Giving presentation in this regard, he said that the Integrated Road Accident Database (IRED) project released by the Ministry of Transport, Government of India, has been started for all the states and it has also been implemented in Haryana; in which the Transport Department has been made the nodal authority for this project. Apart from transport department, police, health, NHAI, PWD, HSIDC, Haryana Shahari Vikas Pradhikaran and local government departments have been taken in which the nodal officers of the departments concerned will work on the road safety project at the state and district level. All the departments will submit their reports on this portal, in which the current status of all the concerned departments can be ascertained.
Addressing all the departments, the Transport Minister said that the responsibilities should be properly fulfilled and the department should improve the achievements made by Haryana in this regard. He also set a target of reducing 20 percent accidents for the year 2023. Principal Secretary, Transport, while reviewing the action taken report regarding the previous meetings of the Road Safety Council gave the following orders to all the road constructing agencies :-
1. Reviewing pending road accident prone points, speed breakers/rumble strips, sign boards, road markings, cat eyes, delineators and black spots etc, all were instructed to complete their points by March 31, 2023.
2. It was told in the meeting that in order to reduce road accidents, Road Safety Associates are being appointed by the Transport Department for all the districts on contract basis; who coordinate with all the departments related to road safety in their respective districts and will help in reducing road accidents.
3. It was told in the meeting that every road construction department/agency should conduct an internal audit of its roads/highways and submit the report to the lead agency.
4. It was decided in the meeting that if any illegal cuts are made on any road or highway by demolishing road construction by dhabas, petrol pumps etc, police cases should be registered against the concerned. This issue should also be taken up in every district road safety committee.
5. Council member, Sh. Sushil Arya discussed the illegal liquor vends on roads and highways, on which the Excise and Taxation Department stated that they will inspect liquor vends along the roads of all districts and a report will be submitted.
6. IG Traffic, Sh. Hardeep Doon informed the council that 213 black spots for the year 2019-2021 have been sent to the Ministry of Transport, Government of India, for approval and 17,67,442 challans have been issued to the defaulters for the violation of traffic rules from January to November, 2022. Apart from this, 1,27,215 challans have been issued for overspeeding vehicles.
7. So far, 175 meetings of the District Road Safety Committees have been held by the Transport Department under the chairmanship of the concerned Deputy Commissioners, in which works like road audit, checking of 4,603 school buses, inspection of roads, training of employees on 468 road safety audits have also been done; so that road accidents can be reduced by strengthening road safety.
8. The council also directed to link NHAI’s toll free number 1033, police’s toll free number 1073 with helpline number 112; so that timely ambulance service can be made available in case of an accident.
9. It was decided that a tripartite audit should be done of the funds being given from the Road Safety Fund to all concerned departments and committees at the district level.
10. It was brought to the notice of the Council that most of the accidents are taking place on NH-1 (44) Ambala to Sonipat route; which comes under the NHAI. On this, the council instructed NHAI to conduct a road safety audit of this route, so that the causes of accidents could be ascertained in the audit.
11. In the meeting, the officers of all the departments were instructed to set a time limit to complete their work. According to the meetings held in the past, all the departments should complete at least 5 kilometers of model road in every district, which fit 100 percent on road safety standards and submit their report to the council.
12. It was decided by the council that all the departments should submit their road safety plan and necessary road safety funds to the Transport Department by January, 2023 to meet the target set for reduction in road accidents for the year 2023.
13. It was said in the meeting that all the road construction departments should prepare a plan to implement the road safety audit. Under this, there is a need to train executive engineers and junior engineer level officials at the district level to give information about these; so that standards related to road safety are kept in mind while making roads. Orders were given to send the names of the concerned officers to the Transport Department for getting the training done.
14. It was told in the council meeting that the instructions issued by the Road Safety Committee constituted by the Honourable Supreme Court should be followed strictly and on time.
15. The Transport Minister said that at present it is the time of fog and in such a situation, the concerned department should immediately install reflectors and reflective tapes on vehicles like marking on the roads and tractor trolleys etc, while working on priority in view of road safety. Apart from this, reflective tapes should be applied on stray animals and cows roaming on the roads; so that accidents caused by stray animals can be curbed.
HSIIDC Managing Director, Sh. Vikas Gupta, IG Traffic, Sh. Hardeep Doon, Sh. Vinay Singh from Finance Department, Finance Secretary, NHAI, Chandigarh, Sh. Vipnesh Sharma, Joint Director Transport, Sh. Pradeep Ahlawat, Regional Officer, Sh. Dilbag Singh, Joint Transport Commissioner, (Road Safety), Sh. Ratan Sandhu from the Education Department, Sh. Sushil Arya, Chief Engineer of Om Seva Sansthan, PWD Department and senior officers of various departments related to the Road Safety Council were present virtually during the meeting
