Concerned over increasing number of road mishaps, the district police have plans to introduce area-wise speed limit regulations across the city soon. The vehicle drivers found violating the speed-limit will be prosecuted.
The number of road accidents in the city has suddenly shot up turning the roads into a virtual ‘death traps’. According to information, cases of accidents are on the rise and in last three months of the year, about 20 mishaps have been reported.
A police official said that the traffic wing of the district police has decided to conduct a survey of different areas keeping in view the vehicular traffic and busy hours.
"We will conduct a comprehensive survey of the entire city. Based on the area-wise survey report, we will fix the speed limits. A proposal, accompanied with the survey report, will be sent to the State Home Department for approval. The moment we get the nod, the new system will be introduced," he said.
The official informed that for making the speed-limit system a success, the district police has already provided with a speed-limit radar (SLR), meant for gauging the speed of a particular vehicle at a specific area.
He said that a road map of the city has been made, and the speed-limits have been fixed for a specific road and even specific stretches.
According to informationavailable, the vehicles passing through market areas in Bistupur and Sakchi must drive at a maximum speed of 20 Kmph. Similarly, maximum speed limit for the vehicles plying on the Straight Mile Road must not be more than 40 kilometres per hour, and the vehicles passing through the schools from a specific point to another point must not be more than 15 kilometres per hours.
Speaking about the speed-limit method that the district police was going to introduce, the official said that the steel city has a number of accident-prone areas which have been taken care of specially.
Like the points along the Fire Temple on the Straight Mile Road, Hati-Ghora Temple on Pipeline Road, Bistupur-Jugsalai road near the Jugsalai police station, Sonari-Bistupur road near the Beldih crossing, Bhuiyandih-Agrico Road at Bhuiyandih, Golmuri-Burmamines Road near RD Tata Technical Training Centre and Ring Road in Telco are earmarked as accident prone.
“The over-speeding of vehicles is one of the prime reasons for the rising mishap but the absence of traffic police and poor road conditions are equally to be blamed.
Though the Road Trans-port Authority from time to time organises Road Safety Week but it is said to have served no purpose as there is no mechanism to control over-speeding of vehicles under city limits,” said a resident.