Black spot management crucial to road safety: Razia Sultana

Chandigarh:  Punjab Transport Minister Ms. Razia Sultana directed the concerned officials to rectify all the black spots in the state as black spot management is crucial for road safety to save the precious human lives from road accidents, while emphasizing that all concerned departments should make concerted efforts to achieve a 50 per cent reduction in road fatalities and injuries on the line of 2nd Decade of Action for Road Safety 2021-2030 by the UN.

While addressing the concluding day event of the National Road Safety Month (18 January to 17 February, 2021) here at Punjab Bhawan on Wednesday, the Transport Minister asked the officials that a dedicated lane should be designated for heavy vehicles and to avert the road fatalities tipper, trailers and other heavy duty vehicles should not be parked on the road sides. She also directed traffic police to initiate a special drive for checking of driving licences of heavy vehicle drivers. “We should shun the behavior of “celebrate and forget” approach. The Road Safety campaign should not be confined to just a month. The awareness activities should be carried on with the same zeal beyond the month”, she added. 

The exercise of identifying the new black spots in Punjab will be completed in the next six months, said the Traffic Advisor Punjab Dr. Navdeep Asija, adding that Punjab has identified 391 Accidental Black Spots in 12 districts, out of total 391 black spots, 264 black spots are on National Highways, 64 black spots are on State Highways/ ODR/MDR, 6 black spots are on Link roads, 54 black spots are on Municipal roads and 3 black Spots on other roads. For each of the police district, the list of 1st order, 2nd order, 3rd order, 4th order and 5th order black spots identified as part of scientific study "Accident Black Spot Identification & Rectification Program on Various Highways/Roads of Punjab” out of which 100 black spots on National Highways have been rectified and 32 on State Roads are under improvement implementation. Punjab is the first state in the north region to complete this exercise at this scale, he added. 

Presenting the status report on the Road Safety Month, 2021 in Punjab, Principal Secretary Transport Mr. K. Siva Prasad said that many road safety seminars, workshops and awareness camps were organized in the different parts of the state. He said that a protocol has been set and in coordination with civil and police and other related departments to end the menace of stray cattle related accidents. All concerned parties are working to make such accidents minimum through Public Participation. He thanked the Punjab Police, all NGOs, other departments and DCs and the Education Department for making it a successful outreach programme.

Director General, Lead Agency Road Safety Punjab Mr. R. Venkat Ratnam said that road safety is not a monthly activity, the departments are regularly working on road safety throughout the year. He said that they have submitted the proposals amounting to Rs. 33.78 crore, in which major focus has been given to Black spots improvements, Speed guns, Installation of CCTV cameras, Funds to District Road Safety Committees, Funds for Crash Investigation and capacity building for the state. The entire expenditure will be made through a non-lapsable Road Safety Fund.

During the meetings of the Road Safety Council major decisions 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 the black spots on national highways in the state will be rectified by the year end. 

Additional Director General of Police Dr. Sharad Satya Chauhan said that a total 5194 road accident cases registered in the state during 2020, in which 3866 people lost their lives and 2934 got seriously injured. This is 18% reduction in road accidents and 15% less than in terms of road accident fatalities from previous year i.e. 2019.