Deputy CM emphasizes on complete restriction of Pressure horns

Directs to prepare Road Safety Act & Rules as per Apex court Recommendations

The state government is going to launch a special campaign against the prohibited pressure horns creating noise pollution. The Transport department along-with the Police and Environment department will jointly conduct the campaign.

This was stated by the Deputy Chief Minister Mukesh Agnihotri while presiding over the 4^th meeting of the H.P. State Transport Development and Road Safety Council, here today.

He said that campaigns and initiatives needs to be launched to create awareness about the effects of the noise pollution which also can lead to various health issues adding that the education department can play a pivotal role in creating mass awareness. He also directed that a “No Horn” campaign should be launched in Shimla city to control noise pollution and that “No Horn” awareness booklets should be distributed throughout the state.

The Deputy Chief Minister directed that all stakeholder departments should take the road safety activities seriously and ensure regular monitoring/review at their level. He also suggested that surveillance cameras should be installed in a phased manner at border areas, especially from Paonta Sahib to Una to monitor and prevent illegal activities related to road safety.

He informed about preparation of the Road Safety Act and Rules to strengthen road safety. He directed that the Road Safety Act should be prepared and proposals should be sent as needed. He also emphasized on strengthening Road Safety Cell.

 Discussing the annual action plan for the financial year 2024-25 as per the directions of the Supreme Court the proposals and activities to be included into the action plan has been taken from all the 12 districts Road Safety Committees and were sent to Head of the Departments (HoDs) of respective stakeholder departments viz: Police, Transport, Health, Public Works and Education for compilation. The State Level Managing Committee has accorded in principle approval of Rs 2393 crore lakh with the directions to revise the plan as per the priority and mandate of the Supreme Court Committee on Road Safety (SCCoRS).

Directing for conducting the meeting at least twice in a year, Shri Agnihotri pointed out that steps should be taken to make certification system for fitness of motor vehicles fully automatic and effective. He said the steps needs to be taken rectify all the spots and the senior officers of the council should also go on the spots where repeated accidents take place so as to analyze the exact cause of mishap.

Mukesh Agnihotri said Himachal Pradesh has witnessed reduction in road accidents by 13 percent and fatalities by 14.6 percent respectively during the year 2023 in comparison to 2022. From 1 January till 31 July this year there was 7.7 percent reduction in road accidents, 17.3 percent reduction in deaths and 1.4 percent reduction in injuries.

The district prone to major accidents as per tabulated data was Shimla, followed by Kangra and Mandi. The PWD authorities need to focus themselves more on the black spots and installation of signages besides the gradient of roads and put it in records.

Shri Agnihotri directed to ensure installation of cameras particularly in bordering areas right from Paonta Sahib to Nurpur, which will not only help capturing the overspending but also will be quite fruitful in checking the illegal activities along bordering states. Besides, the laser speed guns to be set up to control rash and drunk and drive.

He also took brief about the crash barriers being installed and  directed the officers of all the line departments to visit the accident spots and to the field to conduct inspections.

It was informed in the meeting that the Police department conducted 5.17 lakh challans thereby realizing 19.13 crore from 1 January to July 2024. Besides this, the transport department did 21.565 challans during the corresponding period collecting 4.52 crore.  A brief about road network and accident scenario was also discussed in the meeting.

            Principal Secretary Transport R.D. Nazeem while briefing on the subject stated that there are sub division committees under the SDM to look into and analyze the accident spots and to report the same as per directions of the Supreme Court. He said that every accident, whether due to mechanical fault or over speed are being properly analyzed by the district road safety committees at sub division level.    Directions were given to all the Deputy Commissioners to conduct regular meetings of district road safety committees.

Director Transport D.C Negi conducted the proceeding of the meeting.

Additional Chief Secretary Revenue Onkar Sharma Secretary, Secretary Digital Technologies and Governance, Abhishekh Jain, ADGP Law and Order Abhishekh Trivedi, Managing Director, HRTC Rohan Chand Thakur, Director Environment Science and Technology DC Rana, Director Education Amarjeet Singh, Director Health and Family Welfare Gopal Beri, Director Medical Education Rakesh Sharma, representatives of NHAI were also present on the occasion amongst others.