Eyeing to reduce the road fatalities by around 3000 annually, the CM Bhagwant Mann on Saturday flagged off 129 hi-tech vehicles of the country’s first of its kind ‘Sadak Surakhya Force’.
Addressing the gathering here today in a function to launch this force today at PAP grounds Jalandhar, the Chief Minister said that this is a historic occasion as Punjab has become the first state to launch this ambitious scheme to save the precious lives of people. He said that all the officers had played a key role in constitution of this force and then its dedication to the people. Bhagwant Singh Mann envisioned that it would go a long way in saving the lives of people and streamlining the traffic movement.
The Chief Minister said that the idea for forming this force has not come overnight but it has been a result of gross introspection of this serious problem. Bhagwant Singh Mann said that as MP he had vehemently raised issue of road accidents in Lok Sabha as 12 deaths take place in state due to these mishaps. He said that since then it was in his mind that a force will be formed to save the lives of people in the coming days adding that today his dream has come true.
Mann said the SSF will be entrusted the task of manning 5500 kilometres of crucial roads to save precious lives of people. He said that the vehicles that have been roped in for the force are one of the finest vehicles across the world, a fleet of 144 ultra-modern vehicles in the first phase to monitor the roads efficiently. These vehicles include 116 Toyota Hilux and 28 Mahindra Scorpio which will be deployed after an interval of every 30 kilometres to monitor the roads. A team of four cops headed by officer not less than rank of ASI, as patrol incharge, will be there in the vehicle.
Road interceptors will be deployed at every district which will be manned by three cops. In first phase 1296 newly recruited cops along with 432 existing Police personnel will be deployed in SSF. The teams will be deployed 24X7 in eight-hour shift each for which they have been imparted special training at Police Training Academy in Kapurthala.
These vehicles have been equipped with ultra modren gadgets like speed gun, alchometer, e-chalan machines and AI enabled smart mechanism to check the violation of traffic rules. They will also have recovery van along with command-and-control centre enabled real time CCTV cameras. Likewise, there will be road crash investigation and mechanical engineers, civil engineers and IT experts for handling technical assignments.
The Chief Minister said that points will also be kept for the driving licenses so that in coming times chronic violators are punished by cancelling their Driving licenses. He said that this is the need of hour to make sure that people abide by traffic rules and vehicular movement is streamlined. Bhagwant Singh Mann said that it is matter of immense pride and satisfaction that a large number of girls are joining the force and 90 drivers of the SSF vehicles are girls.
This force will be entrusted with the task of checking rash driving, streamlining vehicular movement on roads and others to check the road accidents. He said that these vehicles will also have a complete medical kit for providing emergency treatment to any person in need. Bhagwant Singh Mann said that the force will be duly connected with trauma centres to ensure that people get required medical help on time.
Traffic Violators Beware! To check traffic violations, ultra modern vehicles flagged off by Punjab CM. On the occasion Director General of Police Gaurav Yadav, Home Secretary Gurkirat Kirpal Singh, Additional Director General of Police MF Farooki and AS Rai were also present.