Port Blair, Jan 18: Road accidents continue to be a leading cause of death, disabilities and hospitalization in the country despite the commitment and efforts of various agencies involved. India ranks first in the number of road accident deaths across the 199 countries and accounts for almost 11% of the accident related deaths in the World.
Government has been taking multiple initiatives including those related to vehicular and road engineering as well as educational measures for raising awareness in the field of Road Safety.
The Transport Department, Andaman & Nicobar Administration has been operating bus service in 13 Islands ensuring mobility to the citizen through public transport. Every effort is taken to ensure that the service is provided in a safe and reliable manner. Proactive action is taken by the Department so that scope of road accidents is reduced to barest minimum. Timely preventive maintenance of buses, training to drivers on correct and safe driving, sensitizing the drivers on rash & negligent driving as well as drunken driving are some of the measures taken by the Department to reduce accidents. Other actions like constant monitoring of their performances, frequent checking with breath analyzers and motivating the employees are also adopted by the Department. This effort has not only minimized road accidents but also resulted in financial saving for the Department on account of increased mileage, less breakdown etc.
The Ministry of Road Transport has been motivating the State Transport Undertakings in the Country by facilitating them with Transport Minister’s Road Safety award for safe operation of buses on the basis of number of accidents.
This year Andaman & Nicobar Administration has been adjudged as winner in the category “Moffusil operation for STUs having fleet size up to 1000 buses in 2019-20 and 2020-21 for lowest accident record. The road accident record in Andaman & Nicobar Islands has been the lowest in the country. In the previous year 2018-19 also the Andaman & Nicobar Administration was adjudged as the winner for the lowest accident record. The award was given jointly by Shri. Nitin Gadkari, Hon’ble Union Minister of Road Transport & Highways and Shri. Rajnath Singh, Hon’ble Defence Minister in the presence of Gen. V.K. Singh, (Retd) Hon’b’e Minsiter of State for Road Transport & Highways in a grand function held in New Delhi. The award which contained a trophy and a cash prize of one lakh rupees was received by the Joint Resident Commissioner, A&N Administration, Delhi on behalf of A&N Administration.
This award for the lowest accident record has been a result of joint effort of the bus drivers, maintenance staff and all other employees of Transport Department and their commitment and dedication. Department would like to show its gratitude to the commuters and the employees for achieving this result. The dedication shown by the Police Department in the field of road safety also needs to be appreciated as their presence and guidance has motivated all the employees of the Department which has resulted in the least road accidents.
Transport Department and A&N Police has been working tirelessly to improve the road safety by way of multi-pronged road safety strategy based on Education, Engineering, Enforcement and Emergency Care. Accepting the importance of road safety, Government of India is observing the Road Safety Month from 18th January, 2021 to 17th February, 2021 instead of the previous practice of road safety week. All motor vehicle owners, drivers and road users are advised to follow the road regulations and all laws on motor vehicles in letter and spirit to avoid any kind of road accident or its resultant adverse affects.