HYDERABAD: The state government will introduce road safety bill in the next session of the state legislative Assembly. A full-time DGP-rank officer will head the proposed road safety authority which will work under the jurisdiction of the roads and buildings department.
These proposals were discussed at a cabinet sub-committee meeting on road safety held here on Monday. Ministers Tummala Nageswara Rao (R&B), KT Rama Rao (MAUD), P Mahender Reddy (transport) and A Indrakaran Reddy (endowments), and principal secretary (transport) Sunil Sharma attended the meeting.
The meeting discussed the study report submitted by officials on road safety measures being implemented in Kerala where the state government was implementing the Road Safety Act and encouraging vehicle owners to use simulators. Besides, it constituted Road Safety Fund. While preparing the draft bill on road safety, the Telangana government would follow the Kerala model.
The cabinet sub-committee noticed that around 1.56 lakh people died in road accidents in the country every year, and around 7,000 in Telangana.
Nageswara Rao asked the officials to identify the black spots on roads in order to reduce the number of accidents. Lessons on road safety will be introduced in schools. The sub-committee will submit its recommendations to chief minister K Chandrasekhar Rao soon.
Meanwhile, at a function organised by Sri Krishna Youth Association for distribution of helmets to engineering college students, the transport minister said that they set a target of reducing the number of annual road accident deaths in the state, which is around 7,000, by half by 2020. Road accident victims in the state were mostly young people aged between 25 and 35. Stringent rules would be framed to achieve this, he said.