MP announces Rs 10L grant for CCTV installation, road dividers

Rajya Sabha MP Sanjeev Arora on Tuesday announced a grant of Rs 10 lakh for the installation of closed circuit television (CCTV) cameras in the city. He made this announcement during a meeting with the Commissioner of Police, Kuldeep Singh Chahal, here.

During the meeting, Arora discussed the problems of increasing traffic. He urged the city police chief to regulate traffic more smoothly and increase the deployment of officials in the traffic wing of the Commissionerate Police.

“I will give Rs 10 lakh from the MPLAD fund for the installation of more CCTV cameras and road dividers in the city,” Arora said.

He said additional force will be requested from the state pool for managing traffic more effectively. “Special attention will be paid during school timings,” he added.

The Commissioner of Police told Arora that in order to run the traffic more smoothly, time for the movement of heavy vehicles within the city limits had been set. “The Additional Deputy Commissioner of Police (Traffic) has been instructed to re-examine the high traffic areas in the city to manage traffic smoothly,” Chahal added.

Most accident-prone city

As many as 18 new black spots were identified within the limits of Ludhiana Commissionerate Police, a latest government report had revealed.

With 71 old accident-prone spots, the tally of black spots has now gone up to 89, which is the highest in any Commissionerate or district in the state. However, six old black spots were eliminated in the Commissionerate Police limits during the past two years. With this, Ludhiana continues to carry the dubious distinction of being the ‘most accident-prone’ city in the state.

A study on the identification and rectification of accident black spots in Punjab was conducted by the Punjab Road Safety and Traffic Research Centre (PRSTRC), led by its Director, Dr Navdeep K Asija, with the help of the Punjab Police.

The study was part of the annual report on ‘Road Crashes and Traffic in Punjab 2023,’ which was released by the Director General of Police (DGP), Gaurav Yadav, recently.

The report, which was prepared following extensive research by a team of experts led by the ADGP (Traffic and Road Safety), AS Rai, revealed that a total of 678 accident black spots have been identified across 28 police districts/ Commissionerate areas of Punjab.

The document, “Road Accident Blackspot Identification and Rectification in Punjab 2020-2022 Phase (IV)”, was prepared by PRSTRC with the primary purpose of identifying accident black spots in the state, aiming to better manage traffic on the roads through scientific and data-driven techniques, contributing to the overall improvement in road safety.