While addressing a seminar on a special campaign for awareness on road safety organised by the Public Works Department in association with the Institution of Engineers, Himachal-Center and Transport Department here today, Public Works Minister, Vikramaditya Singh emphasized adhering to road safety measures while construction of roads strictly.
He said that besides the construction of roads, measures should be taken to maintain its quality. Nonetheless, there are a lot of potential hazards that are present on the road. Thus, road safety is important to safeguard the passengers and commuters, stated Sh. Vikramaditya.
He said that our task was not limited to just construct roads but to adopt such measures and engineering techniques so as to ensure the safety of the commuters. He said that in view of the road safety measures all the line departments needs to work in co-ordination to ensure safety measures.
High priority should be given to identification and rectification of black spots (accident prone spots), he said directing further, to identify the black spots and making the general public aware of the importance of road safety. We can together help reduce the rate of accidents and road mishaps that happen on a daily basis by creating awareness and putting up signages and important guidelines on National and State Highways.
He said that the Government was giving utmost importance for safety engineering techniques adding that the road safety measures should be an integral part of planning and the officers should make use of modern tools and make full use of Artificial Intelligence to study the road safety measures and the black spots.
He said that the government was committed to provide better transport system to the people of the state and the visitors and the department was working as per the norms to make their journey comfortable. He said that the officers should go through case studies on safety measures and adopt the modern techniques on priority.
The hill roads were the only the means of ensuring development till the farthest corner. During the formation of the state, the road length was merely 243 kilometers and at present every village in the state is connected by roads, he said. Even the remotest corners of the state were linked with the roads and steps were being taken to connect the few left out.
"As Himachal mulls to promote tourism on a large scale the quality of our roads should be exceptional and we should have the best transportation system in the country as well," he said. He said that road safety was one of the important component and said that pedestrians should also be made aware of the road safety measures and special awareness drives can play an important role in achieving this.
Engineer-in-Chief, PWD, Ajay Gupta said that almost all the roads in the state have been refurbished after the monsoons. The engineering techniques were being paid special attention while constructing roads besides ensuring safety measures.
Head of the Department of Punjab Engineering College, Chandigarh, Dr. Umesh Sharma, Director, University Institute of Technology (HPU), A.J. Singh, Chairman of the Institution of Engineers (Himachal Centre) V.N Joshi, Additional Commissioner Transport, Naresh Thakur also detailed about the road safety measures.