BHUBANESWAR: As road fatalities continue to be a major cause of concern in Odisha, Ministry of Road Transport and Highways (MoRTH) has engaged a Delhi-based agency and a research panel of IIT Delhi as consultants to carry out audit of roads in the State.
Delhi Integrated Multi Modal Transit System (DIMTS) Ltd in consortium with Transport Research and Injury Prevention Programme (TRIPP), IIT Delhi will conduct an ‘Audit of Implementation of the Directions issued by Supreme Court Committee on Road Safety in Odisha’.
As directed by the Supreme Court Committee on Road Safety (SCCoRS), the audit team will carry out the assessment in three states including Odisha.
The team will verify and collect various information pertaining to the audit and study. They will visit different parts of the State and interact with the officials to gather road safety related documents and data apart from primary and secondary information from field.
The audit team will also visit four cities - Bhubaneswar, Cuttack, Behrampur and Rourkela - which have been reporting maximum number of road accidents despite various corrective measures.
After the Secretary of SCCoRS wrote to Chief Secretary Suresh Chandra Mahapatra to assist the teams in carrying out the audit, the State government has asked Secretaries of five departments, DG of Police, ADG of Crime Branch, Transport Commissioner, State Crime Records Bureau and NHAI Chief General Manager to provide data and instruct officials to be in readiness.
Chairman of SCCoRS during a recent discussion with the Chief Secretary and senior officers had expressed concern over rise in fatalities in the State.
There has been steady increase in number of fatalities from 3,931 in 2014 to 5,081 in 2021, an increase of about 29 per cent (pc) during the period.
The Chairman had observed that, violation of MV Act is a serious issue which must be addressed with top most priority else they will lead to serious accidents.
There has to be pressure on public at large that, if somebody violates provisions of MV Act, he will be dealt with strictly and with heavy hands by enforcement agencies, he observed.
Meanwhile, the State government has nominated Joint Commissioner Transport (Road Safety) Sanjay Kumar Biswal as nodal officer to facilitate and connect the consultants’ team with the officials of the State departments.