Bhubaneswar, November 18: To improve road safety in Odisha, the Transport Department on Thursday signed a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) with the Save LIFE Foundation (SLF), a non-governmental organisation (NGO) working towards road safety in India, on Thursday here.
The agreement was signed by Sanjay Biswal, Joint Commissioner, Road Safety, State Transport Authority, Odisha and Piyush Tewari, founder & CEO, Save LIFE Foundation, New Delhi in the presence of Transport Commissioner Arun Bothra. The MoU aims to reduce the road deaths on Odisha roads significantly in the next three years.
As per the agreement, the SLF will identify, recommend and assist with the treatment of up to 100 vulnerable spots in the State where maximum accidental deaths have taken place in the last few years.
Speaking at the event, Transport Commissioner Arun Bothra said, “The MOU with Save Life Foundation is a major step in reducing road mishap deaths. The Foundation has improved the situation in various States. I am sure our combined efforts will bring good results in Odisha as well.”
“Once the remedial measures are suggested and implemented, we hope that fatalities will be reduced by around 30-50 per cent,” he said.
“We deeply admire the commitment of the Odisha Transport Department to save lives and are confident that our ‘Zero-Fatality Corridor’ model will help meet that commitment,” said Tewari.
The ‘Zero-Fatality Corridor’ model attempts at reducing the number of road accident deaths through a 360 degree intervention across engineering, emergency care, enforcement, and education, he said.
SLF will also provide assistance with formation of a Technical Support Unit (TSU) for road safety in the office of the Transport Commissioner. The team will closely work with the lead agency on road safety to reduce road crash fatalities in the State.
