Principal Secretary, Transport Department, Dr Asgar Hassan Samoon today chaired a high level meeting of senior officers of Traffic Police, National Highway Authority of India and Transport Department to review the road safety measures taken to avoid road mishaps.The meeting was attended by Inspector General of Police, Traffic, T Namgyal, Transport Commissioner J&K, Pradeep Kumar, DG Finance Mahesh Dass, Director State Motor Garages, Zakir Choudhary, SSP, Traffic, J S Johar, SSP Udhampur, Rajiv Pandey, SE R&B Udhampur, Er Hem Raj Langeh, Project Director NHAI Division Jammu, Ajay Kumar Rajak, Deputy Manager (Tech) NHAI, Ish Gupta, ARTO Udhampur, Rachna Sharma and other senior officers of concerned departments.Threadbare discussions were held about the safety measures taken along Jammu Srinagar Highway and identification of black spots, besides monitoring, operation and management of traffic, setting up of Operation Control Centres and adopting Intelligent Transport Management System (ITMS). IG Traffic gave a power point presentation regarding road safety analysis and other steps being taken to reduce the accidents on the national highway.
Dr Samoon directed the Project Director NHIA to submit a report regarding putting up of crash barriers along the left out areas and identification of black spots on Udhampur, Ramban and Banihal sections of National Highway. He also directed for installing a sign board, depicting speed limit near DPS School Udhampur, the spot witnessing frequent traffic jam in the Township.Project Director NHAI apprised about the measures being taken and assured that all directions would be followed on priority basis.The meeting also discussed mobility strategy to provide a clean, safe, comfortable, affordable, energy efficient and environment-friendly option of transportation to the people of the union territory.“There is a need for a Mobility plan which shall satisfy the mobility needs of people of all sections of the society and enhance their quality of life, irrespective of geographical location” Dr Samoon stressed.The meeting also observed that old vehicles need to be replaced by modern fleet, while stressing on the need for adopting a suitable policy and having a centralized control centre for managing public transport system to ensure reliability of services.