1st ever all-India traffic conference in city to promote road safety

Kolkata: For the first time ever, a two-day-long All India Traffic Conference will be held in Kolkata during the Road Safety Week as part of the Safe Drive Save Life campaign.

Sources said that letters have already been sent out to the police top brass in all the states inviting them to take part in the all India conference. It is learnt that senior police officers, handling traffic-related issues in other states, will be participating.

This comes at a time when Bengal has gained huge success in reducing both fatal and non-fatal road accidents with Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee's statewide Safe Drive Save Life campaign. Moreover, the Road Safety Committee of the Supreme Court has specially acknowledged her role and the Bengal government for its excellent performance.

The Road Safety Week had been continuing for several years now in a bid to make people aware of the traffic norms considering that it helps to bring down the number of road accidents drastically. This year, the Road Safety Week has begun from Monday and it will continue till January 13.

This is the first time when the Kolkata Police are going to organise the All India Traffic Conference that will be held on January 11 and 12 respectively when awareness campaigns through the Road Safety Week will continue in full swing.

According to a senior police officer, the All India Traffic Conference is going to be organised at Netaji Indoor Stadium where the top brass of the Kolkata Traffic Police will share their experiences of carrying out the Safe Drive Save Life campaign. On Monday, there was a discussion regarding the same at the state Secretariat.

Though the panel of speakers is yet to be finalised, sources said senior police officers with wide experience of working in traffic management will be present along with speakers from other states as well.

It may be mentioned that Bengal was one of the states in the country where many people lost their lives due to road accidents. As soon as it came to the Chief Minister's notice, the statewide Safe Drive Save Life campaign was initiated in July 2016. With continuous monitoring and extensive campaigns since then, the state has witnessed a reduction in road accidents by 16.06 percent, injuries due to accidents have dropped by 12.10 percent and fatalities have gone down by 13.34 percent during the period of January-October, 2017, compared to that of the same period of time in 2016.

Now, according to senior police officers, the All India Traffic Conference is going to be another major step to bring down the number of road accidents further as many new aspects would come up during the event on which there will be further discussions and if necessary, the same could be implemented to ensure a safe and secure road transport system for commoners.