The State government is actively considering a proposal to set up a high-power authority on road safety and add 10 more trauma centres across the State for treating the victims of accidents.
The high-power authority would be provided with funds and functionaries to check speeding vehicles.
To begin with, a road safety fund would be constituted, with a corpus of ₹ 10 crore. Decisions to this effect has been taken after the State registered 7,227 deaths in 22,815 accidents in different places, and serious injuries to more than 23,000 people.
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Transport Minister P. Mahender Reddy who chaired a meeting on road safety here on Monday stressed the need for intensifying efforts to ensure safety on roads to save lives.
The government had cancelled 6,609 licences of people involved in fatal accidents. The department had registered 20.71 lakh cases and levied penalties to the tune of ₹ 29.74 crore during 2016 while over 12 lakh cases had been registered during the current year with penalties crossing ₹ 15 crore till date.
Steps had been taken to constitute a special cell to monitor road safety with officials of Police, Transport, Excise and Roads & Buildings departments. The government had provided the Home department with requisite number of patrolling vehicles, speed guns and other equipment spending over ₹ 37 crore.
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The Minister stressed the need for creating awareness among the people on the measures needed to prevent road mishaps and said steps were under way to introduce road safety in the curriculum of primary and high schools. Efforts had been initiated to put in place vehicle tracking system of global standards while the government was taking care to provide cycle tracks in the new roads that were being developed.
In addition, steps would be initiated to ensure positioning of one 108 ambulance for every 50 km stretch on the national highways and extend the 1033 toll free number facility currently operational in Nalgonda district all over the State, he added.