HYDERABAD: The inordinate delay in implementation of Centre’s directive of installing speed limiting device (SLD) to vehicles in the state has resulted in the rise of road accidents and deaths due to road accidents.The rise in The National Crime Records Bureau report for 2015 reveals that 21,252 road accidents took place in 2015, leaving 22,948 injured and 7,110 dead and over-speeding accounted for over 40-50 pc of road accidents. The previous year, NCRB stated, 21,142 road accidents have taken place in the state leaving 7,979 dead. Highly placed sources in transport minister’s office shared that file proposing the implementation of speed governors has been lying with CM Rao for a year now, awaiting approval. On the other hand, AP Transport departments already made it clear that transport vehicles registered before Oct 1, 2015, will not be given fitness certificate unless they are fitted.
According to sources, transporters, private buses and taxi operators have approached ministers and legislators including Transport minister P Mahender Reddy seeking relaxation in the central notification. “Installation of speed governors was a Central’s directive to all states and we have done our best to start the implementation. We issued a notification stating that fitness certificate will not be given unless they are fitted with speed governors after April 1 last year,” said a senior transport officer.
As there was no further orders from the state, the proposal to implement the order has hit a roadblock owing to frequent calls from ministers for issuing fitness certificate without speed governor, the official said. However, transporters and managements of private educational institutions who are against the move citing different reasons say that it is going to be an additional financial burden on the vehicle owners as each device is expected to cost about `12000. Telangana Lorry Owners Association president N Bhaskar Reddy said ,“A transport vehicle driver will never resort to overspeeding as it affects mileage, which is our major earning.”
TSRTC fears additional burden
The decision to make speed governors mandatory for transport vehicles will come as a financial jolt to the cash-starved Telangana State Road Transport Corporation. The corporation owns about 17,000 buses including non-operating buses and to install a speed governor in each bus would incur huge expenditure of at least `20 crore.
Road safety meet: TS warned for not implementing SLD rule
Hyderabad: International Road Safety expert and a member of National Road Safety Council Kamal Soi on Friday warned TS government against contempt of court petition for not implementing Speed Limiting Device rule in the state. He said non-implementation of the SLD rule in TS and improper implementation in AP is leading to rise in road accidents and deaths of innocent people across both states.
“Union government’s vide notification on April 15 made it compulsory usage of speed governors for vehicles with effect from Jan 31, 2017. The SC committee on road safety has directed all states and UTs to ensure implementation of the regime with respect to compliances of all necessary standards,” he said. “It is to be noted that TS transport department seems to be blindfolded to the fact that agents and MVI’s are still issuing fitness certificates to commercial vehicles without installation of speed governor device and that is because there are no instructions given by transport department,” he said.