ARTs planned to cut road mishaps

PK Jaiswar

Tribune News Service

Amritsar, March 8

With a view to scale down the number of road accidents, the rural police would soon form accident resolution teams (ARTs). The teams would consist of representatives of different stakeholder departments, including the Public Works Department, the National Highways Authorities of India, state highway authorities, the Panchayat Department, the Excise Department, etc.

Before this, the rural police have embarked upon identifying black spots or accident-prone areas with the help of village police officers (VPOs). The VPOs were asked to contact people in villages, including village gurdwara priests, sarpanches and other prominent personalities of the village, in this connection.

It is evident to mention here that rural belts witness accidents almost daily and many precious lives, including those of youngsters and children, have lost their lives in road accidents.

Amritsar SSP (rural) Vikram Jeet Duggal said road accidents were claiming a number of lives in the country, including Punjab, and Amritsar rural belt is no different. Faulty road constructions and engineering defects are among the major causes leading to these mishaps, he said.

“We have decided to identify such spots and people are the best source for the purpose (in identifying accident-prone areas). We will put up signboards to warn commuters, besides taking up the matter with the district administration and other stakeholders for taking appropriate measures to put a check on the rising number of accidents,” he said.

He said ARTs would suggest short- and long-term measures to be taken to reduce accidents and action would be taken to rectify the engineering defects.

ART is the brainchild of SSP Vikram Jeet Duggal, who first implemented it at Ramagundam in Peddapalli district of Telangana. The effort brought down the number of road mishaps and road fatalities considerably.