The State Transport authorities are aiming to make Kerala an accident-free State by 2020, Transport Commissioner T.P. Senkumar has said.
Speaking after inaugurating the State’s first Electronic Visual Aid Centre (EVAC) at the Mavelikara Mini Civil Station here on Wednesday, Mr. Senkumar said enforcing traffic rules, which were being violated by 98 per cent of the public, was a tough task. There was stiff opposition whenever there was an attempt to stringently implement a rule. The only way out therefore, was to create awareness, a huge task given the fact that even highly educated people were illiterate when it came to road safety rules, he said.
A number of measures were in the pipeline, foremost of which was the installation of cameras all across major roads in the State, which would help in enforcement of rules and eventually serve to bring down the number of accidents. The Transport department was short of hands, with just 458 executive staff. Efforts were on to augment staff strength. Already, research and development (R&D) teams were set up to help creation of innovate awareness campaigns.
One of the first attempts of the R&D teams was the EVAC at the Mavelikara Mini Civil Station. A brainchild of Mavelikara Motor Vehicle Inspector Shibu K. Itty, the EVAC aims at imparting lessons on traffic safety through videos to public who reach the civil station daily. Visuals of accidents, explanations of how such mishaps occur and how each person can do his or her bit to avoid accidents and details of the various traffic rules are part of the EVAC’s broadcasting schedule.
The EVAC concept will gradually be extended to all civil stations and RTO offices across the State, Mr. Senkumar said, adding that the State Bank of Travancore (SBT), which had financed the first EVAC, had assured help for the rest of the project as well.
E.S. James, Deputy Transport Commissioner (South Zone), Shaji M. Panicker, Joint RTO (Mavelikara), Thomas Mathew, AGM, SBT and Mr. Itty spoke on the occasion.
