144 patrol vehicles, fitted with equipment to check drunken driving and over-speeding, will be deployed on state and national highways.
Published Aug 11, 2023 | 8:18 PM ⚊ Updated Aug 11, 2023 | 8:22 PM
Punjab Cabinet meets to strategise on measures to bring road fatalities down.
In a significant decision to curb road fatalities, the Punjab Cabinet led by Chief Minister Bhagwant Mann gave the nod for constituting a Sadak Surakhya Force (SSF) in the state.
The decision was approved by the Cabinet in a meeting chaired by the chief minister. According to a statement issued by the Chief Minister’s Office (CMO), the force will cover 5,500 km of state and national highways in Punjab.
“As many as 144 patrol vehicles, fitted with specialised equipment to check drunken driving and over-speeding, will be deployed on these routes, each covering a distance of 30 km. An amount of ₹30 crore will be spent on the purchase of vehicles and the equipment installed in them. Around 5,000 police personnel will be deployed in the Sadak Suraksha Force out of which around 1,200–1,500 personnel will be immediately provided out of the newly recruited police personnel,” read the statement.
The Cabinet expressed concern that 65 percent of the road fatalities take place on the national and state highways, which constitute just 5.64 percent of 72,078 km-long road network of Punjab.
It noted that in 2021, 4,476 lives were lost in 580 road accidents. Most of these fatal accidents take place between 6 pm to 12 pm, when the presence of police on the roads is minimal. As per the decision of the Cabinet, highway patrol routes have been identified based on the past years’ road accidents trends.
The Cabinet gave consent to set up a martyrs’ memorial in a leading park of every district. This memorial will have the names of the martyrs and great freedom fighters, from the respective districts, who had sacrificed their lives during the freedom struggle.
The idea is to highlight their enormous contributions to the younger generations. The memorials will inspire the coming generations to offer selfless service to the country and its people, the statement said.
The Cabinet also gave its nod to use Artificial Intelligence (AI) to further improve governance in the state. The decision aims to make the state a frontrunner in the use of AI in governance, and provide better services to the citizens of Punjab.
AI can also be helpful in reducing road accident fatalities, checking tax evasion, improving health services, improving citizen interface and others.
A Centre for Emerging Technologies has already been set-up in the Punjab State eGovernance Society (PeGS) and an MoU has been signed with an NGO to assist the department in harnessing the power of Al and Machine Learning (ML) in the state government.
