To ensure safety on roads and to discourage cases of drink driving, the State has now decided to suspend driving licence of offenders for six months instead of the current three. This was announced by Transport Minister Divakar Raote announced on Monday after a meeting of the State Road Safety Council at Sahyadri guest house.
In another major step, it was decided to if any vehicle was plying without an insurance policy or with an expired insurance, the owner would not be fined, but the vehicle would be towed away from the spot.
“It has been observed that many accidents happen due to driving under influence of alcohol. The RTO and traffic police personnel have started taking action to stop this menace and in the last two months action was taken against 12,000 drivers for flouting rules. A majority of these were cases of drunk driving,” said Mr. Raote.
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Mr. Raote said that any vehicle plying without insurance policy or with an expired insurance policy earlier attracted monetary fine. “In case of any accident of this vehicle, the travellers do not get any benefits of insurance policy. This has to be stopped,” he said.
As per the council’s decision, such vehicles will be towed away from the spot and will be returned only after producing new insurance scheme and the receipt of the amount paid for insurance. “A system will be set up under which car owners will be informed about the expiry date of the car insurance policy. This work can be assigned to unemployed youth, or self help groups and the cost for it can be collected from the car owners,” Mr. Raote said.
Directions have also been issued to file cases against private travel buses which are found transporting parcels, goods and courier without valid permits. These buses have permit to transport travellers only.
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Meanwhile, the transport department has made available a travel safety fund of ₹246 crore which will be used to purchase speed guns, alcohol meter, interceptor vehicles and speed cameras.