BHUBANESWAR: Secretary of Supreme Court Committee on Road Safety (SCCoRS) Sanjay Mital on Tuesday advised the state government a series of corrective measures to bring down road accidents and fatalities in Odisha.
Mital, who is on a five-day visit to Odisha, to assess and audit the compliance of the apex court guidelines on road safety in the state visited Bhubaneswar to Puri stretch of NH 316 and Bhubaneswar to Berhampur stretch of NH 16.
He suggested corrective measures on both the stretches asking the state government to remove encroachments, rectify black spots, implement Intelligent Enforcement Management System (IEMS) or camera-based enforcement in all the major junctions besides closure of all illegal medians and adequate lighting.
Highlighting the specific requirements on NH-16, the SCCoRS secretary advised proper lighting on the Khalikhote ghat area and other road safety measures as per the audit report. He also asked the NHAI to ensure convex mirrors near ghat sections. Mital held a meeting with members of the lead agency on road safety in Bhubaneswar and appreciated several measures taken by Odisha to curb road accidents in the state.
Odisha has adopted a four-fold strategy to make the roads safe through enforcement, education, improvement in road engineering and emergency care. He praised Suvahak initiative to train drivers and Rakshak junior initiative to train NCC volunteers as first responders for road accident victims. The state government aims to train 8,400 new drivers and provide refresher training to another 50,000 drivers every year through the Suvahak programme.
Under Rakshak junior initiative, 65,000 NCC volunteers will be imparted specialised training on road safety. Odisha has registered negative growth in road accidents and fatalities related to the accidents in the second quarter of 2023 as compared to second quarter of 2022. While road accidents have come down by 7.56 per cent, the fatalities have decreased by 6.24 pc. The SCCoRS secretary would be meeting chief secretary PK Jena on August 30 before leaving the state.