PANAJI
The Goa State Road Safety Fund Scheme 2016 aims to reduce fatalities on roads by 50 percent by 2020. 50 percent of fines and compounding fees collected by RTO will be credited to the fund which will go into implementing road safety measures. These include crucial traffic engineering measures, traffic education and traffic enforcement.
The policy and action plan include creation of safe highway and roads to be undertaken by the Public Works Department (PWD).
The department has already begun the process to set up a corpus account with State Bank of India, where fines collected for the past three or four years will be deposited. An official from the department said once the account is set up, a proposal would be sent to the finance department for transferring the fines collected in the past four years.
“The road safety fund is created and we are in the process of opening a corpus account. Then we have to get back 50 percent of the fines collected in the last three to four years. We will do this by sending a proposal to the government for transferring half of the fines collected in the last four years,” said an official.
A major chunk of the fund would be used for installing signals, reflectors, road signs, road dividers and road markings. Funds will also be marked for NGOs for their participation in road safety education and programmess across the state.
Plans are also underway to rope in schools in the scheme. “Road safety patrols under traffic cell at various schools are also planned. Senior students can take up the task
of controlling traffic at respective schools before and after school hours,” said the
official.
