Financial Commissioner, Finance, Arun Kumar Mehta chaired the meeting of Fund Management Committee for finalisation of Road Safety Fund Action Plan for the financial year 2019-20 here today.The meeting discussed the action plan for utilisation of Rs. 26.55 crore for undertaking various road safety measures across the state under Road Safety Fund Action Plan.The meeting was attended by Principal Secretary Transport Department, Asgar Hassan Samoon, Transport Commissioner, J&K, S.P Vaid, IGP Traffic, J&K, Alok Kumar, Director General Budget, Mohammad Yaqoob Itoo, RTO Kashmir Ikramullah Tak, Additional Secretary Road Safety, Ramesh K Bhat, Additional Secretary Home Khalid Majeed, and officials from finance, transport and other concerned departments.The committee approved an outlay of Rs. 16.70 crores to be kept at the disposal of Transport Commissioner for procurement of various road safety equipments like vehicle interceptors, speed cameras, breathe analysers, hi-tech body-worn cameras and for conducting various road safety activities across the state.The committee also approved setting up of Road Accident Data Management System (RADMS) control room for enforcing effective traffic discipline in the state.Financial Commissioner, A.K Mehta, suggested to adopt the demerit point system for the violators of traffic rules to enforce traffic discipline on the roads in the state.
The committee decided to allocate an amount of Rs. 6.35 crores to IGP, Traffic for procurement of road safety equipments like installation of Variable Message Sign (VMS) system, installation of sensor-oriented PA system, traffic enforcement cameras, purchase of high-end cranes etc.The committee also decided to allocate Rs. 1 crore to Divisional Commissioner Ladakh for conducting road safety activities for Kargil and Leh districts.It was also decided in the meeting that an amount of Rs. 20 lakh each will be kept at the disposal of RTO Jammu, Kashmir and Kathua for undertaking various road safety measures. It was also given out that Rs. 10 lakh each will be released to each ARTO for ensuring road safety measures in their respective districts.Transport Commissioner J&K, S P Vaid, informed the meeting that 110 Royal Enfield bikes will be procured by the department to upgrade the existing traffic management system in the state. He further informed the meeting that driving institutes on the lines of Institute of Driving Training and Research (IDTR) will be established in the state for effective training of drivers.The meeting was further informed that around 1000 Road safety clubs have been established in various high schools, higher secondary schools and colleges across the state for creating awareness regarding road safety measures and traffic rules.