Kolkata Police successfully conducts 'Safe Drive Save Life' Half Marathon

Kolkata: The Safe Drive Save Life Half Marathon organised by Kolkata Police took place on Sunday morning.

The race was flagged off by eminent personalities like cricketer Sourav Ganguly, Jhulan Goswami, thlete Swapna Burman, actor Prasenjit Chatterjee, Paoli Dam, Soham Suvasree and the Commissioner of Kolkata Police,

Rajeev Kumar.

At the end of the race, Kumar announced that the prize money would be triple the amount announced previously. The unique point of this race is that the route was fixed through flyovers and the catch line was

'Run n Fly'.

According to Kolkata Police, the Half Marathon is being organised with a view to promote 'Safe Drive Save life' campaign, which is the brain child of Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee. There were three categories based on

the distance. The race winners of 21 km and 10 km were given

prize money.

The 5 km race was conducted as a token event for fun. The participants of the third category were provided with a T-shirt.

The 21 km race commenced at 6:30 am from Red Road. The route of the race was through AJC Bose Road flyover and Maa Flyover. According to Ranabir Bhattacharya, a resident of Santoshpur, who took part in the 10 km race, the whole event was conducted very well.

People were seen on both sides of the streets encouraging the participants. Kolkata Police had arranged bike patrolling for each categories of the Half Marathon.

There were people patrolling on bicycles as well, carrying water

for the participants.

"I am very happy to see that people appreciated the initiative despite several roads being made 'no entry' and vehicular movement at major crossings was completely stopped for some time. Several women of different age groups were seen taking part in the race," Bhattacharya said.

According to Mitesh Jain, Joint Commissioner (traffic) of Kolkata Police, approximately 17,500 people participated in the Half Marathon. The number of participants increased compared to the 2017 marathon. "We have successfully conducted the 'Safe Drive Save Life Half Marathon.' It was organised to make people aware about

safe driving and saving lives," Jain said.