State Road Safety Council for the State of West Bengal

Government of West Bengal
Transport Department
Paribahan Bhawan
12, R.N. Mukherjee Road, Kolkata – 700 001

No. 1083-WT/TR/P/3M(RS)-6/14(Pt-I) Date: 23.03.2015

NOTIFICATION

WHEREAS, the State of West Bengal is required to form a State Road Safety Council in terms of Section 215(2) of the Motor Vehicles Act, 1988;

AND, WHEREAS, the State of West Bengal is also required to form a District Road Safety Committee for each district of the State in terms of Section 215(3) of the said Act;

AND, WHEREAS, the State of West Bengal has already formulated and notified the West Bengal Motor Vehicles Rules, 1989 as required under the provisions of the aforesaid Act;

AND, WHEREAS, Rules 356, 357 and 358 of the West Bengal Motor Vehicles Rules 1989 have stipulated the functions (objects and purposes), scope for creation of Sub-committees, etc.;

AND, WHEREAS, there has been massive increase in the vehicle population in the State as well as in the number of driving licenses issued;

AND, WHEREAS, the question of ensuring road safety is of paramount importance with the road safety issue being a multifaceted and multidimensional phenomenon requiring coordinated approach to deal with;

AND, WHEREAS, all the stakeholders connected with road safety have to be involved for achieving the targeted objective in this regard;

NOW, THEREFORE, the Governor, in supersession of all previous Notifications/Orders in this regard, is hereby pleased to constitute the State Road Safety Council for the State of West Bengal to deal with all aspects relevant to the road safety in the following manner and with the composition mentioned:

COMPOSITION

The Governor is further pleased to direct that the Chairman of the Council shall have the powers to co-opt as Member of the Council any person/official/expert/ chief of any entity who he/she considers eminently suitable to contribute to the functioning of the Council.

The terms of reference of the Council in addition to those already detailed in the aforementioned Rules will be as under:

Terms of reference

i. To ensure formulation of a State Road Safety Policy and to oversee its implementation;

ii. To oversee and monitor the steps for acquiring traffic (safety) furniture such as road dividing instruments and equipment such as alcometers, speed guess, interceptors, CCTV Cameras etc. for detecting traffic violators;

iii. To oversee and monitor the steps in the matter of strengthening patrolling of roads, especially the National Highways and State Highways, as well as to direct adoption of such engineering measures as are necessary on those roads to reduce accidents;

iv. To oversee and monitor the steps for removal of hoardings and objects that obstruct driving or distract drivers;

v. To oversee and monitor the measures for removal of encroachments on pedestrian paths and make those paths available for the use of the pedestrians;

vi. To give policy directions for putting in place such necessary measures as are considered proper including setting up of sensor based computerised tracks to test the driving skills for issue of licenses;

vii. To oversee and monitor the preparation of a roadmap for achieving the targeted reduction in the number of road accidents by 50% in the State by the year 2020;

viii. To oversee and monitor implementation of the directions of the GOI on the matters of road safety issued from time to time;

ix. To take such necessary steps for the purpose of ensuring road safety all over the State as may be considered appropriate.

This comes into force with immediate effect.

By order of the Governor

SD/- SANJAY MITRA
Chief Secretary, West Bengal

No. 1083-WT dated 23.03.2015