Sanjeev Pargal
JAMMU, Feb 9: The State Government will take initiatives to upgrade all major and important roads in Jammu and Kashmir as State Highways and equip them with standard traffic control feature. It has also decided to declare certain business areas as “traffic free zones” and encourage the people to walk shorter distances.
These measures were part of Jammu and Kashmir Draft Road Safety Police, approved by Governor NN Vohra yesterday and put in public domain today. The general public can study the Policy on www.jktrans.nic.in to give their suggestions.
According to the Policy document, the State has only National Highways, which are constructed by the Union Ministry for Road and Surface Transport and maintained by the Beacon or other such Central agencies and didn’t have even a single State Highway, which is constructed by the State Government.
“Initiatives shall be taken up to upgrade all major roads in the State and classify important roads as the State Highways,” it said.
The Government has decided to strictly enforce removal of encroachment of roads and pathways as it feels that these encroachments were one of the reasons for road accidents and congestion. It said police and Municipalities will be made accountable through the Transport Minister to ensure that roads, pathways and pedestrian paths are free from all kind of encroachments.
“To provide safer roads and mobility, the Government after due process and consultations with all stake holders, will declare certain business areas (mostly in the cities) as ‘traffic free areas’ and encourage the people to walk some distance to overcome congestion in the business hubs,” sources said.
It proposed to adopt innovative features to encourage public transport system instead of private transport system as a measure to overcome congestion on roads in some area. In this context, the Government will increase the operations of State Road Transport Corporation (SRTC) and encourage private bus owners to introduce smart buses to reduce private transport to maximum possible extent.
The Government in its Policy document had proposed slew of measures as post-crash response to reduce casualties in the accidents by creating a network of ‘Trauma Health Care’ facilities of National and State Highways. Such Centres will be established at accident prone stretches of the roads with critical care ambulances and basic life support devices.
It proposed constitutions of ‘Road Management Administration’ under the charge of Transport Minister with representatives from Works, Home, Urban Development, Motor Vehicles and Health Departments. It will evolve institutional mechanism to clarify the roles and responsibilities of concerned Government organizations to determine ways and means for effective coordination among different agencies engaged in the road safety measures.
The Government will adopt the principle of ‘Bring Them Alive, Keep Them Alive’ for the accident victims. This, the Policy said, can be achieved if the critical ambulances reach the spot(s) without any loss of time followed by reaching the hospitals in minimum possible time.
To fund the ‘Road Safety Initiatives’, the Government propose to get the funds raised from the share of taxes, fines and cess levied under the Motor Vehicle Act. It would also request Members of Parliament (MPs) and legislators to contribute towards road safety works through their Constituency Development Fund (CDF). Similarly, the businessmen and industrialists will also be encouraged to donate towards the Road Safety Fund.
“The Government will ensure that Municipalities establish, install, monitor and maintain traffic signals at all crossings to ensure safe and pleasant driving,” the Policy Document said, adding that Advanced Weather Information Centres will be established at different places on the Highways.
Noting that behavior of the drivers was also major cause of accidents, it proposed education and training to the drivers to improve their competence and capability. The license holders must have basic knowledge of road safety measures.
The Policy proposed that law enforcement agencies like Traffic Police shall be equipped with advanced devices to detect over-speeding, red light jumping, drunken driving, illegal movement obstructions and helmet/seat belt violations. The law enforcement agencies shall be sensitized to ensure checking of fitness of the vehicles as per the protocol/time schedule and detection of unauthorized driving by minors.
“No new vehicles will be allowed to be introduced in the State without installing speed limit device (Speed Governor), which has been made mandatory under the Motor Vehicles Rules,” it said.
It proposed that in order to implement road safety initiatives, new development of roads will be put to safety audit system and the design at pre-opening stage to avoid any black spots in the network.
Follow our WhatsApp channel