Safe school travel, free pavement top agenda

Tribune News Service

New Delhi, August 17

Formulating a "full-fledged" policy on safe transportation of schoolchildren and getting pavements free from encroachments to facilitate pedestrians were a few important decisions taken in Road Safety Council meeting today.

The 21-member council, chaired by Delhi Transport Minister Kailash Gahlot, met for the first time after its reconstitution in July.

Emphasising safety of schoolchildren, the minister said the council has decided to come up with a "comprehensive full-fledged" policy for their safe transportation.

Gahlot said the decisions taken by the council also included eliminating 141 identified black spots — stretches of roads that witness, at least, three fatal accidents in a year — in the next 3-4 months.

The minister said the council decided to set up a committee to act as "lead agency" with a few sub committees.

"The committee will have officials from the transport and police departments besides technical and professional experts as its members. It will scientifically study each fatal accident in the city to find ways to minimise loss of life," Gahlot said.

The committee will also hold meetings of departments concerned on behalf of the Road Safety Council and coordinate with district-level road safety committees chaired by district magistrates, he said.

The committees will be asked to take "suo motu" cognisance of encroachment of pavements under their jurisdictions and remove these impediments to facilitate the pedestrians, the minister said.

The council also decided to carry out safety audit of all the roads in the city with the help of expert agencies like Central Road Research Institute and School of Planning and Architecture.