SRINAGAR, OCT 22 : Additional District Development Commissioner, Mohammad Hanief Malik today chaired District Road Safety Committee meeting and reviewed the actions taken report of last decisions besides discussing the road safety plan for district Kishtwar.
At the outset, ARTO Kishtwar/ Doda, who is also the member Secretary of District Road Safety Committee presented a detailed presentation of the action taken by the road safety committee in the district. He informed the meeting that there is 45% decline in deaths in road accidents as compared to last year in district Kishtwar besides 25 % decline in accidents as compared to last year upto September 2020.
Several decisions were taken up in the meeting for controlling and minimizing accidents, smooth flow of traffic and implementing effective road safety mechanism, target of challans and violation detection were also set.
Threadbare discussions were held on various issues including, identification of black spots and accident prone areas, removal of encroachment form important city roads, improvement of rotaries, identification parking spaces/ areas, modernization of traffic management system, enforcement of road.
The ADDC laid stress on identifying accident prone locations and black spots, installation of crash barriers at vulnerable places, installation of signage and generating awareness amongst the people for making roads safer for the commuters.
He also passed directions for organising special camps, workshops, lectures in all High schools, Higher Secondary schools and colleges regarding road safety measures, besides directed to install/display of QRT/ emergency health care /Ambulance Contact Nos. on all routes of the district after every 2-5 km including NH-44, so that precious lives can be saved in case of any accident or at the time of emergency.
Directions were also issued to traffic and motor vehicles department for identification of idle parking spaces at Chatroo, Paddar, Shalimar, Kuleed Chowk thus enabling implementation of complete ban on road side parking. Besides, he directed to explore possibilities for truck parking near Helipad, bus stand or other feasible places in the district.
He also stressed for early start of e-challan system for curbing traffic rule violations in the town. It was decided that Executive Magistrates in the district shall check the vehicles in their jurisdiction and book traffic violators under MV Act in different offences like not wearing crash helmet, plying without documents and stunt or rash and negligent driving, over loading, drink and drive, use of mobile phones while driving.
In order to provide immediate ex-gratia relief to the road accident victims, a committee was constituted for processing the cases within a shortest possible time.
The ADDC also asked the Executive Engineers for conducting road safety audits of all routes pertaining to their jurisdiction. NHIDCL authorities were directed to conduct road safety audits from Thathri to Sythan by or before 10th November 2020. Besides BRO authorities were directed to conduct road safety audits of Kishtwar to Sansari route and submit action taken report at an earliest.
The effective utilization of various equipments procured under road safety funds for conducting regular checking by the enforcement agencies to curb traffic violations was also discussed.
Revenue authorities were directed to identify the state land about 30 kanal for construction of ARTO office with provision to space for automatic computerized driving skill test track and 50 kanal land for Scrap yard, dumping of scrapped, condemned/Accidental, outdated vehicles.
The ADDC emphasized on the strict enforcement of traffic regulations and awareness regarding road safety which is essential for road accidents.
The meeting was also attended by Joint Director Planning, Mohammad Iqbal, DySp (Hq) Devendar Singh Bandral, XENs, besides officers from police, traffic, health, education, NHIDCL, BRO and others. (PTK)
