They have come together to form a new forum, ‘Uyir’ (life), which will be inaugurated by Chief Minister Edappadi K Palaniswami in Coimbatore, on October 27, at Coddissia trade fair complex. 

Uyir is spearheaded by Sanjay Jayavarthanavelu, Managing Director of Lakshmi Machine Works Ltd., S Rajasekaran of Ganga Hospital, CBI former director DR Karthikeyan, SV Balasubramaniam and chairman of Bannari Amman Group and many others. 

Rajasekaran said that Tamil Nadu has been registering increasing number of fatalities and it needs to be brought under control. “India has surpassed China with accidents claiming lives of over 1.83 lakh people annually. Coimbatore stands next to Chennai in terms of road accidents. Last year, 238 persons died in road accidents in Coimbatore and almost 71 per cent of those accidents were due to drivers’ fault,” he said. 

The district Collector, Coimbatore City Police Commissioner, Corporation Commissioner and Transport department officials will be enrolled as honorary trustees of Uyir. 

Of its various plans to bring down accidents, Uyir has decided to first engage student community in creating awareness among the public. Under a novel project, the students will turn into ‘kutty cops’ and go about sensitising their families and prevent them from violating rules. 

Vijay Mohan of Pricol Ltd said that they have chosen 40 accident prone traffic junctions in the city to be modernised. As many as 120 modern cameras that can be zoomed to even read the number plates of vehicles will be fixed in these junctions to monitor traffic violators. 

The accident prone spots were chosen after studying for about 18 months as 45 per cent of accidents happen at these places on Avinashi Road, Mettupalayam Road, Trichy Road, Thadagam Road and Sathyamangalam Road. A mobile app will also be launched soon for public to report traffic violations to police.