Save Pune Traffic: NGO write to civic chief for Rs 17 crore allocation for road safety

PUNE Five non-profit organisations in the city have come written to the Pune Municipal Commissioner Saurabh Rao asking that at least Rs 17 crore be allocated for

PUNE Five non-profit organisations in the city have come written to the Pune Municipal Commissioner Saurabh Rao asking that at least Rs 17 crore be allocated for road safety in the civic budget.

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The demand, entitled ‘Pune Road Safety Campaign’ was made by Save Pune Traffic Movement, Parisar, Safe Road Foundation, Centre for Environment Education (CEE) and Centre for Development Studies and Activities.

These NGOs have demanded that PMC allocate Rs 3.5 core for signal controllers; Rs 12 crore for mid-block crossings as per Indian Road Congress (IRC) guidelines; Rs 1 crore for CCTV cameras in accident prone areas; and Rs 50 lakh for outreach programs.

Two-wheeler riders and pedestrians constitute about 85% of all road crash fatalities in Pune.

“Roads like Chandani Chowk-Katraj ‘Bypass’ highway, Katraj-Kondhwa Road, Solapur Road, Hadapsar-Phursungi Road, see a very high number of fatalities. If CCTV coverage is provided on these roads, it may be possible to determine the root causes of these fatalities and take data driven measures. Pune Road Safety Campaign needs an extensive outreach effort, in addition to these projects,” stated the letter signed on behalf of five NGOs by Harshad Abhyankar, Director, SPTM.

According to Abhyankar , the campaign was announced by mayor Mukta Tilak in February this year, after the budget for the current year was already announced. “We did an internal survey and based on data from multiple sources and common knowledge we arrived at this amount. Mid block crossings are very crucial because maximum accidents take place on roads with dividers where pedestrian jump over the divider and the rider is uncertain of the pedestrian leading to a fatal accidents at times,” said Abhyankar

A core committee which was to be formed under this campaign which will include head of the various departments of the civic body including roads and electrical, a few NGO’s, Pune traffic police and a few political party leaders is in the pipeline and will soon be put in place, Abhyankar added

Sanskriti Menon of CEE, said, “This campaign should not be limited to government organisations. With help from outreach professionals, we must include educational institutes, corporate sector, media as well as citizens of all strata of the society in this campaign. Road crashes and fatalities can reduce significantly if these projects are executed. This will put Pune firmly on the way to reduce road crash fatalities by 50% in five years.”