E-Paper
Ludhiana roads most unsafe in Punjab
National road safety council cites police data which reveals that on an average 599 people die in road mishaps in Ludhiana district every year; launches campaign to make roads safer and bring down fatalities
With a high fatality rate of 68.6%, Ludhiana roads have become the most unsafe in the state.
As per data compiled by the Punjab Police, on an average 599 people die in road mishaps every year in Ludhiana district. According to the figures compiled by Punjab police, as many as 673 persons died in 2016, while 518 lost their lives in road mishaps in 2017.
At least 604 lives were
snuffed out in road accidents in 2018.
The figure of 599, includes road accident deaths in both the rural and urban areas of Ludhiana district.
The roads of the city are becoming death traps with innocent lives continuing to get snuffed out.
Citing the high road fatality rate in Ludhiana and calling it the most unsafe city in the country, Kamal Soi, member of National Road Safety Council, Ministry of road transport and highways, has launched a ‘Mission Safe Ludhiana 2020’ with a motive to reduce the number of deaths on roads by 25% this year.
Addressing the media, Soi stated that in the last three years, around 1,100 residents have died in road accidents in the city while 1,795 deaths have been reported in three years in the entire district.
“Poor road infrastructure, drunken driving, speeding, overloading are some of the main causes of road mishaps and it can be improved if all the four pillars of democracy come together to bring change,” he said.
The National Road Safety Council member added that his mission is to reduce the number of deaths by 25% this year along with making the city free of traffic jams.
Soi highlighted that 40% of the fatal accidents are caused due to speeding but the police are issuing fewer challans for this offense as they have only
one-speed gun, which is placed at the Clock Tower elevated road.
“There is no mechanism to enforce speed limits in Ludhiana and due to lack of equipment, there is no fear of being caught among commuters. People drive at reckless speed endangering their own and others’ lives,” he said while adding that he will get the equipment arranged under this mission to ensure people drive as per the speed limit.
Soi further said that he has identified six roads, including Ferozepur Road, Chandigarh Road, Malerkotla-Sangrur Road, Sahnewal-Laddowal Highway, Southern Bypass and Pakhowal Road where he has planned to bring improvement in road infrastructure.
He said that his first step would be to involve all stakeholders, including district administration, civic authorities, police, politicians, transport department, judiciary, and the public to initiate the action
plan.
“After involving the stakeholders, my focus will be to ensure the implementation of high-security registration plates (HSRP) on all the vehicles. The tamper-proof, reflective HSRP plates are being affixed with non-removable and non-reusable snap locks. Apart from this, work will be carried out to rectify the problems at blackspots on these six roads through scientific enforcement,” he said.
“I will try to arrange funds from the state government and if the state government is not able to provide funds, I will involve private companies in this project for financial assistance,” he said, adding that he will take the help of the court if any of department refuses to cooperate.
Other points in his list of the action plan include — implementing the safe school vahan policy, monitoring road accidents police station wise, road safety audit, testing of commercial vehicles for fitness and roadworthiness, condition of roads (including intersection points, traffic lights, and potholes), improvement of emergency medical services and others.As per the ‘Identification and rectification of Punjab road accident blackspots’ report, which was released by Tandrust Punjab Mission director KS Pannu in September last year, Ludhiana holds second place after SAS Nagar with as many as 91 black spots in the jurisdiction of Ludhiana police commissionerate. In the report, Sahnewal Bridge was said to be the most risky spot, recording 22 deaths in three years — 2016, 2017 and 2018.
