Samoon reviews road safety action plan, purchase of passenger fleet

Jammu: Principal Secretary Transport Department, Dr Asgar Hassan Samoon, Thursday chaired a meeting to review Road Safety Action Plan and status of purchase of passenger fleet for various regions of the State.
The meeting was attended by Director State Motor Garages, Z H Choudhary, Director Finance Transport Department, Mahesh Das Sharma, Managing Director JKSRTC, Bilal Ahmed along with representatives of leading bus manufactures, Additional Secretary (R/M), Secretariat of Road Safety, Deputy Director (Planning), Transport Department, Satpal, Deputy Secretary, Transport Department, Hakim Muzaffar, RTO Kashmir, Ikramullah Tak, RTO Jammu, Dhananter Singh and the officers.
Dr Samoon directed the officials to purchase the buses for Chenab valley at the earliest. He asked the bus manufactures to keep the terrain in consideration while manufacturing buses for the region. He said the erstwhile Doda district witnesses the highest rate of road accident-related deaths in the entire state and to minimize the human loss a robust transport system is need of the hour for the region.
He asked the officials to order the purchase of buses that will prove disable friendly besides useful for women, children and old age people.
The Principal Secretary was briefed about the status of purchase of buses for Gurez and Tulail area of Bandipora district. He was also informed about the status of purchase of buses for Leh and Kargil districts of Ladakh division.
He also announced Rs. 25 crore for the revival of SRTC and asked the officials to speed-up the process so that the amount would be spent in the next financial year.
On the status of Electric Vehicle Charging Infrastructure (EVCI), Dr Samoon was informed that the purchase of the electric buses by SRTC is at its final stage. He directed the SRTC officials to make the EVCI functional by April 13 (Baisakhi Day) in twin cities of Jammu and Srinagar.
Dr Samoon said the government has proposed Rupees 25 crore each for urban bus transportation and for placement of 500 private buses in the state.
He emphasized the need for a robust road safety action plan for Jammu and Kashmir and sough suggestions from ARTOs for the same. He also directed all the ARTOs to submit road safety action plan pro forma so that a combined, comprehensive and single Road Safety Action Plan would be prepared for the state.
He was also informed about the status of utilization of road safety fund, and passenger and fleet management system.
On the occasion, Dr Samoon accorded the sanction for advance drawl of Rs 5.88 crore lakh for Anti Lock Braking System (ABS), which has been made mandatory for all vehicles by Government of India from April 1, 2019.