Assam Transport Dept starts drive to enforce safety regulations for accident-free New Year eve

GUWAHATI: Assam Transport Department started a special drive across the state to enforce various safety regulations to prevent accidents in and around the New Year celebrations.

Assam has already witnessed more than 6,800 accidents, in which over 2,800 people have lost their lives in 2021. This has forced the state administration to vow to have accident-free celebrations on December 31.

In order to have a safe and accident free new year this time, the Transport Department along with Assam Police has started a special exercise to aware as well as penalise the violators that will continue till January 1 morning.

Each district has formed special teams of enforcement officials for inspection at various points and they are equipped with breath analysers with disposable pipes and other devices, he added.

A speed limit of 60 km per hour has been imposed for December 31 across the state irrespective of the roads like highways.

According to Assam Transport Department data, 29 lives were lost in 69 accidents on December 31, 2020 and January 1 this year.

In 2020, 6,593 accidents took place in Assam and 2,629 people lost their lives in those incidents. Of these, 215 persons died in 699 accidents in Guwahati alone.

As per Transport Department figures, the state has seen 23,191 road accidents in the last three years from 2018 to 2020, taking the lives of 8,803 people in those cases and 56 per cent of the death victims were in the age group of 18-35 years age.

Assam Chief Minister Himanta Biswa Sarma has recently announced that he has resolved not to allow any person to die in an accident during the New Year celebrations in this year.

Taking a serious note on drink-and-drive cases and the consequent casualties, Sarma on December 24 held a video conference with Deputy Commissioners, Superintendents of Police, DTOs, Superintendents of Excise of all districts and asked them to put a spanner on drink-and-drive phenomenon.

He asked them to generate adequate awareness through publicity to avoid any kind of rash driving that may be undertaken under the influences of alcohol.

The chief minister has already rolled out a multimedia awareness campaign featuring himself with an appeal to the people to follow all the safety norms.

He also asked the DCs to undertake visits to district civil hospitals and medical college hospitals, especially on the night of December 31, and ensure availability of doctors and immediate medical intervention to the victims of road accidents.

Moreover, the Joint Directors of Health Services were advised to make ambulances ready to meet any emergency by the chief minister.

As a part of the initiative to achieve the goal of zero accident on the last day of the year, Assam Transport Minister Chandra Mohan Patowary on Tuesday flagged off nine highly advanced Traffic Interceptor Vehicles (TIV).

The newly deployed TIVs will be

operational in Baksa, Dhubri, Hojai, Karbi Anglong, Morigaon, Sivasagar, Kamrup and Lakhimpur districts, besides being used by the central squad of the Commissioner of Transport.

Earlier 15 TIVs were deployed and 11 speed guns were distributed for effective enforcement of traffic regulations.

The TIVs are fitted with Automatic Number Plate Recognition System (ANPR) camera, which may be used not just in detecting over-speeding cases, but also for other offences like non-wearing of helmet and seatbelt along with breath analyzers.

According to official sources, 48 per cent of the accidents take place on the national highways, mainly due to faulty road engineering and absence of signages.