Transport Department to Gear up Enforcement Activities for Embodying ‘Vision Zero Madhya Pradesh’ Initiative
BHOPAL / The transport department will gear up the enforcement activities at the accident-prone zones on the highways across the state to concretize the ‘Vision Zero Madhya Pradesh’ campaign launched in the last week.
Talking to The Sun Today, Additional Transport Commissioner Enforcement (ATCE) Arvind Saxena said that to reduce road accidents in the state and curb the deaths in road mishaps, the transport department would accelerate the enforcement activities up to subdivision level with the coordination of various departments such as health, road construction, police, and education.
Madhya Pradesh Government has recently launched the ‘Vision Zero Madhya Pradesh’ campaign with an aim to bring down road crash fatalities to ensure safer roads across the State. MP Minister for Transport and Revenue, Govind Singh Rajput virtually inaugurated this initiative at a function held in Gwalior where the headquarters of the department is located.
“The four Es, Education, Engineering, Enforcement and Emergency care play a crucial role to bring down the deaths in road accidents. And the coordination among them is necessary from district headquarters to the tehsil level”, the ATCE, Saxena said.
Vision Zero is a multi-national road traffic safety project that aims to achieve a highway system with no fatalities or serious injuries involving road traffic. It started in Sweden in October 1997. In 2014, deciding a Public Interest Litigation filed by S Rajaseekaran, the Supreme Court directed the Centre, States and Union Territories to come forward to reduce the road accidents in India. The Apex Court also said that a road safety committee should be formed under the supervision of the court and a retired SC’s justice shall chair the panel.
“The transport department is planning to increase the enforcement activities at the far-flung areas on the state and national highways because most of the deaths are reported in those regions due to a lack of primary medical care in road accidents. While road crash fatalities less happen in the cities and their outskirts”, Saxena also said.
The ATCE emphasized that the road safety committees should be set up to the subdivision level in all 52 districts of the state, however, these committees are at the district level now and working under the guidelines of the Supreme Court.
As per the Road Accident Report for 2019, a total number of 449,002 accidents took place in India during the calendar year 2019 leading to 151,113 deaths and 451,361injuries. While 49,000 road accidents happened in Madhya Pradesh of which over 11,000 people lost their lives.
According to a recent road accident report of the Union Ministry for Road Transport and Highways, 43 per cent of fatalities out of the total deaths in the country were reported in road accidents. In every three minutes, death is taken place in road accidents in the country.
A need is required to set up the well-equipped primary health centers and community health centers at the tehsil level near the highways where the primary medical treatment could be provided to the injured so that they can be rushed to the nearby district hospital, Saxena added.
“The transport department together with police will also increase the vigilance at the identified black spots, the accident-prone places, on the state and national highways to bring the campaign at the ground root level in the state”, Saxena also added.
