The top brass of the Kolkata Police and senior officials from the Kolkata Port Trust (KoPT), including its Deputy Chairman, Mr S Balaji Arun Kumar, met at the Kolkata Police headquarters in Lalbazar here today to discuss a plan to build a dedicated freight corridor between Garden Reach and Vidyasagar Setu, widely known as the Second Hooghly Bridge.
“The idea is to segregate goods vehicles plying from the Garden Reach dockyard. As per our plans, KoPT will build a flyover which will serve as a freight corridor,” Mr Sumit Kumar, Deputy Commissioner of Police (Traffic), Kolkata Police, said at a Session on Logistics and Road Safety on Day II of the Safety Symposium and Exposition organised by CII.
“Our studies have revealed that though goods vehicles account for only 8 per cent of the vehicles plying on city roads, they are involved in 27 percent accidents. So we have proposed to the KoPT to create something which will help to segregate the movement of goods vehicles,” Mr Kumar said. It was known that the expertise of the National Highway Authority of India (NHAI) may be sought in building the proposed dedicated freight corridor.
Mr Kumar also said that the Kolkata Police in collaboration with the State Transport Department are considering issuing a mandate that all buses have a special type of front mirror installed to enable drivers to have clearer views, especially on the left. Bigger vehicles have a blind spot to the left of the driver. Not always can they see if a passenger is boarding the vehicle or getting off it. This specially built front mirror will help reduce accidents,” Mr Kumar said, adding that a number of Volvo buses have already installed such mirrors.
“We will first have these mirrors installed in government buses before we push owners of private buses for this,” he said.
Mr Kumar also disclosed that Kolkata Police have booked 46 habitual offenders in the past one month. He also said installation of speed cameras and modern equipment has helped significantly reduce accidents.
9 August 2018
Kolkata