The industry on Friday adopted a voluntary code of conduct covering all issues and practices relevant to road safety thereby according top priority to reducing road accident rates in the State.
Representing the industry, the Confederation of Indian Industry (CII) signed a memorandum of understanding with the Karnataka Transport Department here. Under this there will be awareness campaigns, seminars, conferences, events, training programmes, counselling, implementation of projects, study missions, research projects and publications.
Launching this Safefleets initiative of the CII, Karnataka Transport Minister R. Ashok said quality of transport service will improve only when customers demand safe and comfortable travel and safety of their goods as their right.
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Mr. Ashok said there were 90 lakh vehicles registered in the State as on December 2009, 41 lakh of them in Bangalore alone. Over 8,000 people died and 45,000 were injured in road accidents in the State last year; 800 deaths were from Bangalore city.
Discipline week
Mr. Ashok said besides organising Bus Day every month to encourage travel by public transport, the Bangalore Metropolitan Transport Corporation will organise Discipline Week from next week.
During the period, bus crew will be sensitised to follow road discipline, including parking at designated bus bays.
The department, Mr. Ashok said, is striving hard to encourage public transport in order to reduce road accidents, traffic congestion and air pollution.
The MoU was signed by P. Girish, Principal Counsellor and Head, CII Institute of Quality on behalf of CII and Transport Commissioner Bhaskar Rao.