Govt to form TN Road Safety Authority with executive powers

CHENNAI: To bring down road accidents through a scientific approach, the State government is all set to form Tamil Nadu Road Safety Authority (TNRSA) with executive power to reduce accidents fatalities.

The Special Task Force on Road Safety, which was formed in March this year, has been entrusted with the task of drafting the bill to facilitate the smooth operational transformation to the authority.

According to sources in the STF, with the multiple road-owning agencies from the National Highways to village roads, it’d be difficult to enforce scientific road engineering to improve road safety.

“With every department living in their own world, we needed one authority to keep road safety in focus. Now that there’s an improvement, it’s proof that it’s working after the scientific road engineering and scientific enforcement,” government sources said, adding that for a long-term solution, there is an immediate need to introduce a system.

“For that, bill is being drafted on TNRSA by the STF chairperson and ADGP Vinit Dev Wankhede IPS, Darez Ahmad, director of National Health Mission, Arun Roy, secretary, (Expenditure) Finance Department, Sathya Narayanan, Joint Transport Commissioner of Road Safety and R Chandra Sekar, chief engineer, Highways,” sources added.

The STF has identified short-term measures including strategies, software and a portal.

“After it’s formed, we’ll be handing it over to the authority, which will be a multi-serving body with both IAS and IPS officers in it. Road safety is equal to safe roads and safe users. It must be enforced by the highways department, police and transport departments under one authority,” sources explained.

Unlike states like Punjab, which had formed a road safety authority as more of an advisory body, sources clarified that the TNRSA will be able to direct works to be done and also take actions on accidents that were totally avoidable.

With every department living in their own world, we needed one authority to keep road safety in focus. Now that there’s an improvement, it’s proof that it’s working after the scientific road engineering and scientific enforcement