National Conference on Urban Road Traffic Management and Safety kicks off

Kolkata: The state-wide Safe Drive Save Life campaign that was launched by Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee, has come up as the main point of discussion in the National Conference on Urban Road Traffic Management and Safety.

The national conference, being organised by Kolkata Police, has started on Thursday and will continue on Friday at Netaji Indoor Stadium.

Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee tweeted in this connection: "National Road Safety Week begins today. We are already observing Road Safety Week in Bengal from January 8-13. We have also started #SafeDriveSaveLife programme to spread awareness about road safety, and earned praises from the Supreme Court."

There was an inaugural session of the National Conference on Urban Road Traffic Management and Safety, addressed by Firhad Hakim, the state Urban Development minister, Rajeev Kumar, commissioner of Kolkata Police and Alapan Bandyopadhyay, additional commissioner of police.

Appreciating the work done by Kolkata Police in the past few years, Hakim said: "Kolkata is the only city where airport can be reached from the heart of the city within just half an hour. I have visited most of the metropolitan cities in the country recently and found that the traffic management in Kolkata ensures a journey from the heart of the city to airport in only 30 minutes." He further said that the Chief Minister had taken the move and introduced the Safe Drive Save Life campaign, which has ensured a significant drop in road accidents in the state.

Alapan Bandyopadhyay said: "Road safety has become a global, national and local concern. Around 1.5 lakh people die in our country due to road accidents and it is worse than cancer today. Conferences like this go a long way in fulfilling the knowledge gaps."

Rajeev Kumar urged the delegates from other states and the concerned police officers from the state to highlight the failures along with their respective success stories.