123 Kolkata: The twin decisions aimed at increasing safety on the city roads – one, monitoring bus speed through an app and two, setting up different top speeds for roads based on their exact usage at different times of the day – will become a reality "very soon", transport minister Snehasis Chakraborty said on Wednesday. The minister was speaking at the inauguration of the road safety week that was organised by the state police traffic headquarters and the transport department at City Centre in Salt Lake.
"After back-to-back accidents involving buses, CM Mamata Banerjee was worried. The app that is being launched will help us track bus movement on multiple fronts – track the driver who is driving, track the speed at which he is driving, track whether he is adhering to speed limits, and whether he is following the SOPs for bus operation," said Chakraborty.
He also said that the notification on varying top speeds has already been released by the chief secretary, and a declaration on the maximum speed permissible on different stretches of the same road will be released soon. Chakraborty reiterated that the twin moves are not aimed at slowing down city traffic but rather a practical approach based on ground reality to save lives.
Speakers at the occasion stressed how the Safe Drive Save Life Campaign has saved numerous lives on roads since 2018. "The idea is to ideally bring deaths on roads to zero. We have also identified officers across the state who helped reduce congestion. They were eventually felicitated," said an ADG of Bengal police.
Several senior officers from the state police and transport department were in attendance along with actor and MP, Dev, when a cycle rally was flagged off from Salt Lake. This rally will see cyclists stop at multiple towns to spread traffic awareness before reaching Siliguri on Feb 4.