Going the extra mile for road safety

KOCHI:  Hopping into your vehicle, travelling miles to your favourite destinations, entering into deep conversations with absolute strangers; road-trips are gripping fantasies of not just youngsters, but people of all age-groups in the city. A team of three motor enthusiasts from Kozhikode has taken road-trips to the next level by undertaking a 7,086 km long cross-country journey in a car from India to Bhutan. The idea emerged as part of HNOP (Horn Not OK Please), a social impact project to spread awareness on road safety, initiated by the ‘Young Indians’ non-profit organisation. The trio; Laeeq Ali, Sajeev C P and Mujeeb Rehman wanted to get a hands-on experience of the travelling difficulties in the country, to make people aware of road rules and to learn how traffic regulations have been implemented in Bhutan.

The crew is now back in the city and are eager to share bundles of experiences they have gained during their 12-day long journey. “Our objective was to drive around the country by avoiding unnecessary honking and visit a nearby country that has the best road safety practice,” said team leader and Confederation of Indian Industry (CII)- Young Indians Bengalure chairman Laeeq Ali. “Hence we zeroed in on   Bhutan, “ he said.  Starting on March 10 in a Toyota Fortuner, the team covered a total of 10 states within India including major cities such as Bengaluru, Hyderabad, Visakhapatnam and Siliguri. Following a four-day stay in Bhutan during which they visited Paro, Jaigon and Baleshwar, the group reached their hometown by March 21.

On the journey, the team agrees in unison that though roads from Kozhikode to Kolkata were traveller-friendly, only a handful of people were willing to stick to the road rules. “As part of our objective to spread awareness, we spoke to several truck-drivers and pedestrians and explained to them the need to reduce honking and necessity to follow rules.

In return, they also gave tips on the routes to take and how to travel safely at night,” said Sajeev C P. He added that apart from great roads, Bhutan was a class-apart in the way the road rules were implemented. “Drivers strictly obeyed the rule of not travelling over 50 km per hour even on national highways, which came as a surprise to us, “ he said. As the next step of their initiative, the team plans to organise various road-safety projects targeting travellers of all age-groups as well as conduct similar road-trip to encourage youngsters to travel more.