Inaugurating two-day seminar on Road Safety in Visakhapatnam, the Union Transport Minister Nitin Gadkari unveiled a mega plan of Rs. 11,000 crore for a comprehensive plan of road safety in the country. The plan envisages removing 876 identified black spots on national highways, employing best road engineering services, issuing corruption free driving licenses and establishing driving/training institute one in each State.
Road safety is a very important matter for us in J&K State. It is so because most of our roads run over mountain stretches. The National Highways are the lifeline of the State and we need to keep these up to date round the clock. Unfortunately for various faults like black spots, bad road engineering, careless driving, overloading etc. the fatalities owing to road accidents are large. Despite many efforts made regularly by Traffic and Engineering Departments, we have not been able to overcome this shortcoming. With the announcement made by the Union Transport Minister, our State needs to be the foremost beneficiary of the scheme. We, therefore, would like to invite the attention of the Transport Minister to make special provisions of J&K State. He is fully informed about the road transport situation in the State and has always shown great sympathy and interest in helping the State develop its high class road network. With this announcement, we are much encouraged and hopeful that the much needed road safety measures will now be taken.
We have seen so many tragic and innocent road deaths happening over the National Highway and other roads in the State. We have seen vehicles falling down the deep gorges hundreds of feet down into the nullahs and destroying precious lives. All this has to stop. We once again emphasize on transport authorities of the State that great responsibility falls on their shoulders at least in three sectors of issuing driving licenses strictly according to established rules, withdrawing licenses from defaulting drivers, strictly enforcing periodic checks of the road worthiness of vehicles, severe punishment for overloading etc. This is not what the Union Transport Minister has to do; it is the duty of State Transport authorities.
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