BHUBANESWAR: The Transport Department has been asked to make an assessment of the traffic condition in urban centres of Orissa in five years hence and create a database with planning for repair and maintenance of roads. The State Government has initiated steps for formulation of a new transport policy for facilitating overall growth rate in the economy. The issue was discussed at the State Working Committee meeting under the chairmanship of Chief Secretary BK Patnaik here on Monday. The new policy aims at establishing an efficient, transparent and modernised transport management system to ensure safe, affordable, quick, comfortable, reliable and sustainable access to the burgeoning population. Patnaik advised the department to look into competitive pricing and coordination among various modes of transport for providing an integrated and sustainable transport system. In urban centres, direct linking of feeding roads to main roads should be avoided and service roads should be provided to curtail the chances of accidents. Emphasising on safety measures, the meeting decided that enforcement will be tightened to check the age of the vehicles, over-loading, parking of heavy vehicles through mobile squads and surprise checks. The department asked to list out all 15-year-old vehicles and measures should be taken to construct bus-bays and parking places along the road to minimise the traffic congestion. According to a latest survey, nearly 70 per cent of the road accidents occurred due to reckless driving. The meeting decided to recommend the National Committee on Urban Transport Policy for introduction of online driving licence system to avoid the possibility of issuance of driving licence to a person in other states whose licence was cancelled by one state for reckless driving or violation of traffic rules. The national committee will also be recommended to permit public private partnership (PPP) mode in construction of railways and running of rails, construction of two more airports and introduction of direct flight to Bhubaneswar from internationally important airports and tourist centres. At present, the State has only one airport, 19 airstrips, 16 helipads, nine water routes, 2,287 km of railway network and 234 railway stations. Commerce and Transport Secretary Gagan Dhal, Housing and Urban Development Secretary Saurav Garg, Works Secretary SK Ray, Special Secretary, Home, UN Behera and Transport Commissioner Surendra Kumar participated in the discussion.
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