Addressing the meeting of the Road Safety Committee, Deputy Commissioner Mrs. Sakshi Sawhney directed the officials to replace the damaged street lights on the roads in the city and install maximum reflectors in view of the foggy weather. She said that apart from this, speed breakers should also be constructed in the city as required. Keeping in view the increasing traffic in the city, Mrs. Sawhney also directed the corporation officials to provide more parking spaces for the people so that vehicles do not remain parked on the roads.
The Deputy Commissioner asked the National Highways, Public Works Department, Mandi Board and Corporation officials to ensure adequate arrangements on the roads falling under their jurisdiction as per the requirement of the weather. She also appealed to the Commissioner of Police to stream line the autos and e-rickshaws plying in the city so that the normal traffic is not disrupted.
Police Commissioner Mr. Gurpreet Singh Bhullar said that there has been a huge increase in traffic due to the festivals. He said that 299 traffic personnel are working to control the traffic and since January 1 this year, 43639 challans have been issued by the traffic police. He appealed to the residents of the city to support police and said that they should take care of the road clearance while parking the vehicles and drive slowly in the city.
He said that currently we have opened the lane of BRTS project for two wheelers and emergency vehicles. They also appealed to the corporation officials to install jabra crossings in the intersections. On this occasion, Commissioner Corporation Mr. Gulpreet Singh Aulakh said that currently 1874 CC TV cameras are working and 85 thousand lights have been installed in the city and a report has also been sought to increase them as required.
On this occasion, Mr. Desraj, Joint Director of Traffic Cell Punjab Police said that 6289 road accidents took place across Punjab during 2023, in which 4829 people died and 2318 people were seriously injured. He said that the sad thing is that the age of more than 70 percent of the victims of accidents was between 18 and 45 years. He said that in order to reduce accidents in the city, there is also a need to identify the places where more accidents occur, to find out what causes it.
Apart from this, he emphasized the need to establish Jabra crossings and make arrangements to ensure compliance. On this occasion, ADCP Traffic Mr. Harpal Singh, ADCP Headquarters Harkamal Kaur, ACP HS Sandhu and Gagandeep Singh along with senior officials were also present.