BHUBANESWAR: Even as Odisha has been categorised as a ‘high performer’ in the implementation of various road safety directions following negative growth in road fatalities in the first three months of the year, the Supreme Court Committee on Road Safety (SCCRS) has asked the State government for stricter enforcement of traffic laws.
The apex court committee conducted a detailed study to assess the implementation status of the road safety directions issued to states. A team of consultants engaged by SCCRS visited Odisha for 15 days in June. The team assessed the extent and quality of actions taken by the State government.
As per the compliance report shared with the Transport department, the State has scored 66 per cent (pc) and the team has praised a few initiatives, including project Rakshak, Vahak and the national road safety short film festival. Apart from the helmet compliance in Bhubaneswar, the agency has also appreciated the smart queue system implemented at RTO, Bhubaneswar.
“Though the State is in the higher performer category, there are a lot of improvements that need to be done. On-ground effectiveness also needs special focus in enforcing the rules and laws, equipment and infrastructure availability and functioning,” the Committee observed.
In the institutional category which includes the functioning of the Lead Agency and utilisation of the Road Safety fund, the team has scored 19 out of 25. Similarly, 15.7 and 14.4 out of 25 have been given for enforcement and engineering respectively.
The State scored 10.5 out of 15 in emergency care and 6.3 out of 10 in education. The Supreme Court Committee has directed to complete the construction of truck terminals and comprehensive trauma care units besides making the command-and-control centre for surveillance and automatic number-plate recognition so that the footage can be monitored continuously.