PMC road safety audit draft to go to RTO, traffic dept

Pune: The civic body has prepared a draft of the road safety audit for some of the key stretches of city roads.
The draft focusses on 200 km of roads. Some of the key stretches have significant traffic flow and pedestrian movement every day and are also vulnerable to traffic jams and accidents.

The document will now be submitted to the traffic police department and the Regional Transport Office (RTO) for further study and recommendations. Based on the recommendation, the Pune Municipal corporation (PMC) will prepare a final draft.

An official from PMC's road department said an agency was appointed to conduct the road safety audit. "The agency has conducted on-field surveys and has visited crucial spots. To make the study comprehensive, it is necessary to take opinions from the traffic police and RTO. The draft will be sent to both the offices in the next few days. The final draft is expected to be ready by next month," the official said.

The PMC said it now plans to conduct road safety audit of 1,000 km of city roads. The work will be taken up in a phased manner. The official said the road department was committed to improving mobility. The road safety audit would bring up more practical issues and probable conceptual measures to prevent accidents. The objective of the audit was to improve the safety of all road users by preventing accidents rather than reducing them, he said.

Traffic police department sources said traffic slows down due to various reasons including roadside encroachments, narrowing of lanes and wrongly-placed signals. The study will help the civic administration come up with solutions, they said.