Team Herald
PANJIM: The State government will issue a notification to allow detaining vehicles of persons found to be riding without wearing helmets. An official of the Transport Department said the State has the powers to amend the existing law by issuing such a notification.
The decision to seize vehicle of riders not wearing helmets was taken at the State Road Safety Council on Thursday. Transport Minister Ramkrishna Dhavalikar said the law will come into existence soon.
“The main motive behind the decision is for the public safety on the roads,” the Minister said after the State Road Safety Council meeting.
During the meeting Public Work Department (PWD) and Traffic Police were instructed to submit a plan of action, along with expenditure estimates, to the committee in order to detect over speeding on road.
Directorate of Transport and Goa Police are in the process of procuring interceptors fitted with long range and high speed cameras to detect over speeding during the day and at night, the minister said.
As per the Supreme Court Monitoring Committee, the Directorate of Transport started suspension of licences on references made by Police. As per the statistics from October 1, 2016 till March 31, 2017 approximately 5066 licences had been suspended, the department said. During the last financial year the traffic cell had issued 50,000 challans for riding without helmets.
As per directions of the Supreme Court committee, the State has already notified the road safety policy and also created plans to utilise 50 percent of the funds collected.
PWD has been asked to expedite the process of engaging an agency to carry out road safety audit of the existing roads in the State. Sending PWD engineers for training was also taken up for discussion at the meeting.
