Odisha has found a place in the ‘high performers’ category in a Supreme Court committee report on road safety implementation, said the State Transport Authority (STA) on Tuesday.

The Supreme Court Committee on Road Safety (SCCRS) had initiated a detailed study to assess implementation status of road safety directions issued to all States following which a team of consultants engaged by the SCCRS had visited the State for 15 days in June.

 They had assessed the  quality and extent of actions taken by the State Government and as per the compliance report shared with the Transport Department, Odisha scored 66 per cent and was categorised as a ‘high performer’ in implementation of various road safety measures.

The STA stated that the team praised helmet compliance in the State capital apart from the smart queue system implemented at the Regional Transport Office (RTO) in the city which was attributed to complementing infrastructure.

In the institutional category, which includes functioning of Lead Agency and utilisation of Road Safety Fund, Odisha scored 19 per cent out of 25 per cent. The State score was 15.7 per cent for enforcement, 14.4 per cent for engineering, 10.5 per cent for emergency care and 6.3 per cent for education.

According to the STA, the team during field visit observed that various activities adopted by Odisha can be considered as best practices and also be recommended to other States.

These included Project Rakshak, Project Vahak, National Road Safety Short Film Festival, helmet compliance and driver behaviour in Bhubaneswar, the Driver Training Institute at Chhatia, Smart Queue System at Bhubaneswar RTO and the Integrated Traffic Management System (ITMS) project in Sundargarh district.