Chief Minister Dr. Pramod Sawant chaired a meeting with HODs and Senior Officers to review the work of implementation of Road Safety Measures by Stakeholder Departments on 21/2/2023 at the conference room of GST Bhavan, Althino. Senior Government officers present in the meeting were Subhash Chandra, Secretary(Transport), Govt. of Goa, Jaspal Singh, IPS, Director General of Police, Police Department, Omvir Singh, IGP, Police Department, Ms.Mamu Hage, IAS, Collector-North, Shri Asvin Chandra, Collector (South), Uttam .P. Parsekar, Pr.Chief Engineer, PWD, Upendra Joshi, OSD to Chief Minister, Rajan Satardekar, Director, Directorate of Transport, Siddhi Halarnkar, Director of Panchayat, G.P. Pilankar, Directorate of Municipal Administration, Shailesh R. Sinai Zingde, Director of Education, Bossuet Silva, Superintendent of Police, Traffic Cell, Prashant S. Thete, SIO, NIC, Dr.S.M. Bandekar, Dean, Goa Medical College, Bambolim Goa, Dr. Rupa Naik, Chief Medical Officer (NCDC), Directorate of Health Services, Campal, Panaji-Goa, Pralhad Desai, Addl. Director of Transport (S), Lead Agency, Directorate of Transport, Panaji-Goa.
Hon’ble Chief Minister expressed his concern regarding several road accidents and resultant fatalities and directed strict action to bring accidents under control. During the review of the work of each stake holder department, a presentation was made explaining data on road accidents. In the 2022 calendar year, 251 people were killed due to road accidents. It was observed that the majority of accidents have occurred on village roads and Major District Roads. The direction was issued to carry out the cause and analysis of the accident and implement short-term and long-term measures on priority. PCE PWD informed that 10% of the estimate of road work is assigned to road safety aspects in the work like the erection of signboards, and barricades. The direction was issued to expedite work and carry out an audit of State Highways, village roads, and MDR.
It was discussed that manpower in Transport Department for field enforcement is short and it was directed to expedite carrying out the process of recruitment for enhanced manpower. Electronic Enforcement /CCTC surveillance cameras feed will be used to issue challan shortly. Sentinel Scheme will be reviewed. Health Department discussed the need for trauma care / ICU at both the District Hospitals with Technical Staff and 4 Highway Ambulances to improve emergency response to save the lives of the accident victim. The department is directed to initiate a proposal for the same. The Education Department shall engage Physical Education Teachers for Road Safety Training and coordinate with the concerned Department.
Drunken driving shall be dealt with in a strict and intensive manner. Discussion regarding time restriction on identified locations due to the heavy vehicles, and road roller (10 Wheeler and above) was also held during the meeting.
