• BLACK SPOTS REDUCTION RATE STANDS AT 52% WITH THE CONCERTED EFFORTS OF PRSTRC• ADGP TRAFFIC CONGRATULATES PRSTRC FOR REMARKABLE ACHIEVEMENTS AND CONTRIBUTIONS TOWARDS PROMOTING ROAD SAFETY
Face2News/Chandigarh
Punjab Road Safety and Traffic Research Centre (PRSTRC) has celebrated its first anniversary by marking a year of progress towards creating safer roads and reducing accidents in the state, said Additional Director General of Police (ADGP) Traffic AS Rai.
Congratulating the centre for its remarkable achievements and contributions to promoting road safety in Punjab, he said that PRSTRC was the first step towards evidence-based policing and making in-house arrangements for data-led decision-making. “This has helped us not only to optimize our resources but to plan impactful interventions using a data-led approach,” he said.
Highlighting the achievements of the centre, ADGP AS Rai said that the centre has created jobs for road safety professionals in the state, which has been helping in promoting road safety and ensuring a safe transportation system for all. It has also contributed towards research and innovation by developing state-of-the-art crash investigation vehicles and smart barricades that utilize the power of AI to improve road safety, he added.
The centre has identified 784 accident black spots in the state and invited an investment of over 1100 crores for improvement of national highways, said Mr Rai, while adding that out of the total work done on the 239 black spots till date in the last one year by the centre with NHAI, it is found that 124 black spots are eliminated and are no more in the list of black spots. This represents a significant reduction of 52% in black spots.
(MOREPIC1) (SUBHEAD)Giving details about road accident fatalities, Punjab Traffic Advisor-cum-Director PRSTRC Dr Navdeep Asija informed that 1434 people had lost their lives on these black spots when identified between the period 2016-2018 and during this evaluation period, the fatalities reduced to 932 on these black spots.
This represents a significant reduction of 35% in fatalities in these locations.
Additionally, a regional research institute has been set up at the Centre of Excellence for Road Safety and Traffic Management at Guru Nanak Dev Engineering College, Ludhiana, he added.
Navdeep Asija said that PRSTRC has trained more than 500 police personnel on crash investigation and the latest motor vehicle amendments as part of its capacity-building efforts. The centre also provides consulting services to the National Highways Authority of India.
The centre has collaborated with esteemed institutions such as IIT Roorkee and IIT Delhi for research and development work and capacity building.
The development of PATHS (Punjab Assessment Tool of Highway Safety) has been another major accomplishment of the centre. PATHS is an innovative tool for assessing and identifying areas that require improvement to ensure safer roads.
