BHUBANESWAR: In a bid to reduce road accidents and fatalities, the Transport department has roped in an expert team of Pune-based Central Institute of Road Transport (CIRT) which will share emerging technologies in road designs and construction.
As part of the exercise, a series of workshops on road engineering will be held at Heavy Motor Vehicle Driver Training Institute in Chhatia between July 29 and August 6. Engineers of National Highways Authority of India (NHAI) and Design Planning and Investigation and Roads (DPIR) wing will attend the workshops.
About 200 engineers in four groups will take part in workshop. Every group will have 45 engineers from DPIR and five from NHAI. This, the Transport department feels, will improve roadway design and reduce accidents to a great extent.
“The experts from CIRT will enhance engineers’ knowledge about the new and emerging technologies used in road construction. They will also guide engineers to identify, analyse and rectify road engineering defects which lead to accidents,” said a senior the State Transport Authority (STA) official.
Besides sharing theoretical information, CIRT experts will also provide practical training to engineers. The experts will take the engineers of each group to a particular road, possibly on a highway, and suggest them any rectifications required to make them safer.
As per available data, road accidents and fatalities arising out of them were higher in first quarter of 2021 compared to this year. However, the same in April and May this year have seen a rise compared to 2021. There was weekend shutdown/lockdown in April and May last year and hence hardly any vehicular movement and accidents during the period.
Odisha witnessed about 1,104 road accidents and 492 fatalities in January last year, 1027 accidents and 466 fatalities in February, 1099 accidents and 512 fatalities in March, 870 accidents and 404 fatalities in April, and 635 accidents and 235 fatalities in May.
In January this year, the State recorded 961 accidents and 456 fatalities, 843 accidents and 403 fatalities in February, 1,091 accidents and 500 fatalities in March, 945 accidents and 459 fatalities in April, and 1,140 accidents and 539 fatalities in May. “To reduce accidents and resultant fatalities, the Transport department is focusing on four aspects - education, enforcement, emergency care and road engineering,” said STA sources. Plans are afoot to create awareness among traffic constables and home guards in all police districts of the State after August 15 on how to provide first-aid to accident victims as they are the first responders in such circumstances, he added.
A road safety audit along 3,059 km stretch in the State is being conducted by Crapts and Translink Infrastructure Consultants, and their reports will be submitted to the State government by August end. The government may make engineering and signage changes as per the recommendations suggested in the road safety audit reports.
The Transport department has also planned to float a tender soon to carry out the road safety audit of the remaining 5,000 km stretch in the State.