PANAJI
North Goa District Road Safety Committee meeting held on Tuesday has taken up the issue of the dangers presented by the entrances and exits of KTC bus stands of Panaji and Mapusa which are used by hundreds of buses which are ferrying thousands of passengers daily.
The North Goa District Road Safety Committee has formed a special monitoring cell and at the meeting the Monitoring Cell has been requested to undertake the inspections and tackle safety issues at the entrance and exit of the KTC Bus Stands at Panaji and Mapusa on priority.
There are many accidents which are happening at the bus stand itself. It may be recalled there was an accident of one elderly person getting crushed under the wheels of a reversing bus at Panaji bus stand. There are many accidents happening at this bus stand which go unnoticed.
In the absence of the Chairman of the Committee Shripad Naik, Member of Parliament North Goa, the meeting was chaired by Additional Collector-I Gopal Parsekar in the presence of Dy Collector (Revenue) Veera V. Nayak.
The District Committee which meets quarterly has appointed a Monitoring Cell which will meet monthly and pursue the targets to reduce fatalities and related issues as fixed by the Supreme Court monitored Road Safety Committee.
The 6-member Monitoring Cell will be chaired by DySp Traffic (North) and the Member Secretary is Assistant Director Transport Enforcement (North) and the 4 members are representatives from PWD, Education & Health Department and GOACAN.
The meeting today also resolved that the Monitoring Cell will follow up on the time bound removal of the 24 Black Spots as listed by PWD (NH) in North Goa by undertaking regular site inspections as well as pursuing the commitments made by the respective road contractors.
It was also decided to prepare awareness materials on the Good Samaritan Law which would be made available to all the Road Safety and Traffic Management Committees in Village Panchayats and Municipal Councils in North Goa.
The Education Department has been requested to examine the proposal to print Road Safety materials for all High Schools and HSS for the forthcoming Academic Year in June 2021.
The Committee has also requested the Cell to create the necessary awareness on the penalties for operating Road Rollers in violation of the exemptions provided and also the violations by goods carriers carrying protruding poles so that special enforcement drive will be undertaken from March 15.
The Excise Department was requested to submit a list of all Bars in North Goa that have complied with the display of the 'Don't Drink and Drive' message.
The Committee resolved that the compliance report of repainting of signage of all speed breakers and pedestrian crossings after a hotmix of roads will be submitted by the PWD Road Engineering Cell.
A comprehensive report of all hoardings on the side of National and State Highways and Major District Roads will be prepared after collecting data from all the respective Deputy Collectors, Traffic Cells and PWD Sub Divisions.
Analysis of five recent fatal accidents in North Goa will also be undertaken by the Cell and the recommendations to be submitted to the District Committee.
