In an effort to ease public mobility, Government is planning to reintroduce radio taxis in the State.The plan was discussed in a high-level video conference meeting chaired by Principal Secretary Transport Dr Asgar Samoon Wednesday. The meeting was held regarding mobility on highways including NH-44, NH-1 and Mughal Road in State.Options to invite private players like Ola and Uber to start operations were also discussed during the meeting.The meeting also discussed the plan to install GPS system in public transport, besides erecting crash barriers on highways to bring down the number of accidents on the roads.Dr Samoon directed the officials to make the current trauma centres functional on the highways, besides establishing the new ones so that precious lives of people could be saved.He informed the meeting that the Government is also retrofitting 100 ambulances, received from the Union Government and deploy them on all accident-prone roads like Kishtwar, Doda and Ramban.
Dr. Samoon informed that the government is also focusing on Mughal road to redevelop it completely as an alternate highway and access route to Jammu. “After bottle necks are taken care of Mughal road would ease out the transport of fruit from Valley to different parts of the country,” Dr Samoon said.Divisional Commissioners of Kashmir and Jammu divisions would launch special an anti-encroachment drive and explore suitable options for creating wayside amenities along the National Highway for convenience of commuters.The officials also discussed the issue of over loading and over speeding in public transport and decided to take significant measures to curb such bad practices, which can turn lethal.It was decided that the government would continue to organize awareness programs and road safety drives to educate people about different road safety schemes.The meeting was attended by Transport Commissioner, Dr S.P.Vaid, I.G. Traffic, BassantRath, Divisional Commissioner Jammu, Managing Director, JKSRTC, Additional Secretary, R&B, Representative of National Highway Authority of India, D.C Rajori and other senior officials were also present in the meeting.