Chandigarh, July 24: “The Punjab Government under the visionary guidance of the Chief Minister Captain Amarinder Singh is keeping a specialized focus on the aspect of carrying out radical transformation in the road safety measures as per the changing times which is the need of the hour.” The views were expressed here today by the Transport Minister, Punjab, Mrs. Aruna Chaudhary while chairing a meeting of the Punjab State Road Safety Council.
The minister disclosed that ‘e-challaning machines’ would be introduced which would use the NIC software and would also be connected to the internet. This would lead to the minimizing the probability of corruption at the field staff level. Divulging more, the minister said that in order to tackle the menace of drunken driving which has been causing a large number of road accidents, ‘breath alcohol analyzers’ would be purchased and these would be independently connected with the E-Challan application on the NIC server.
Listing out the over speeding as one of the gravest problems leading to innumerable accidental deaths, Mrs. Chaudhary elaborated that the equipment for the purpose of monitoring the speed of vehicles especially on 6 lane National Highways would be purchased. The minister said that the proposal to install speed measurement as well as the display boards at appropriate locations would be given thoughtful consideration.
Coming to the issue of overloading, the Minister said that the automated weigh in bridges having connectivity with the NIC should be put up at the important points to check overloading specially near sand/gravel quarries and in case of any wrongdoing the consignee must also be booked.
The minister also instructed the highway patrol vehicles, PCR vehicles must be fully equipped with the latest paraphernalia and all info with regard to the area where they are deputed in order to help out the people in distress. The various other issues discussed in the meeting included procurement of body cameras and accidental cutters.
Mrs. Chaudhary also gave a clarion call for educating the common masses concerning the road safety measures and instructed that the guidelines in this regard must be strictly implemented and batted for the publication of a booklet detailing all info on the road safety aspect.
Among others present in the meeting included Principal Secretary, Transport, Punjab, Mr. Sarvjit Singh, ADGP (Traffic) Mr. Sharad Chauhan, Traffic Advisor Punjab Police Mr. Navdeep Asija and Mr. Rahul Verma from Sambhav Foundation Ludhiana (Both members external of the Punjab State Road Safety Council).
