Sinha chairs high level meeting to review Road Safety in JK

Jammu, Feb 25: Lieutenant Governor Manoj Sinha Saturday chaired a high-level meeting to review the Road Safety measures in J&K, at the Civil Secretariat.
The meeting was attended by Rajeev Rai Bhatnagar, Advisor to Lt Governor; Dr Arun Kumar Mehta, Chief Secretary; RK Goyal, Additional Chief Secretary, Home Department; Dilbag Singh, DGP; H. Rajesh Prasad, Principal Secretary, H&UDD; Shailendra Kumar, Principal Secretary, Public Works (R&B) Department; Divisional Commissioners, Deputy Commissioners, besides senior officers from Traffic Police and UT administration in person and through virtual mode.
During the meeting, the Lt Governor took an appraisal of the implementation of directions issued with regard to improving the Road Safety in the UT and steps taken since the previous meeting.
G. Prasanna Ramaswamy, Administrative Secretary, Transport Department presented the detailed Action-taken report on the status of major infrastructure projects (IDTR Kot Bhalwal & ICC, Samba); enforcement activities by Traffic & Motor Vehicle Department; working of District Road Safety Councils, action taken by road owning agencies for improving the safety of the roads, Installation of CCTVs along roads by NHAI and Police; status of Intelligent Traffic Management System in JMC and SMC, streamlining of Integrated Road Accident Database (IRDA).
While reviewing the enforcement activities being undertaken by the Traffic and Motor Vehicle Department, the Lt Governor directed for taking strict action against the violators who temper with speed limit devices installed in their Vehicles.
The Lt Governor also enquired about the completion of works related to identifying black spots along highways and utilisation of the road safety fund.
The chair was informed that 100 unauthorized cuts have been plugged, besides crash barriers along 98.65 Kms and 3104 speed limit signages have also been erected since April 2022.
Appreciating the efforts of all stakeholders for their commendable efforts towards improving road safety in UT, the Lt Governor asked them to develop a robust mechanism to check the health status of drivers.
The Lt Governor further asked the concerned departments to conduct causative analysis of road accidents for multi-pronged road safety strategy. He also issued directions to complete the works of crash barriers installation at the identified spots.
“All stakeholders to work towards the common goal of road safety & reducing road fatalities,” the Lt Governor said.
Reviewing the process of installation of CCTVs along roads on National Highways, the Lt Governor asked the concerned agencies to complete the work well within the stipulated timeframe.
He further stressed on addressing the issues of old vehicles, if any, running on roads, checking overloading and unauthorised hoardings.
Directions were also issued for completing Inspection and Certification Centre (ICC), Samba, Institute of Driving, Training and Research (IDTR), Kot Bhalwal, Jammu and Intelligent Traffic Management Systems at JMC & SMC and making them functional at the earliest. The Lt Governor stressed upon active cooperation of all the stakeholders and effective measures for road safety and appropriate interventions to reduce road accidents.