In order to improve road safety in Odisha, the State Transport Authority (STA) launched a capacity building and training programme for road engineers at Heavy Motor Vehicle Driver Training Institute, Chhatia near Bhubaneswar on Friday.
In the first of its kind training programme in the state, about 200 engineers working on design and construction of National Highways and State Highways will take part in the two-day training between July 29 and August 6. Every batch will have 50 participants including 45 engineers from Works department and five from National Highways Authority of India (NHAI).
Speaking at the inauguration function, Ram Prasad Panda, Chief General Manager, NHAI said, “Three factors are responsible for road accidents – roads, humans and vehicles. Two vital factors belong to engineers – roads and vehicles. We have to work in a cohesive manner to reduce accidents.” The training will enhance the knowledge of the engineers about road safety audit to identify, analyse and rectify road engineering defects which lead to accidents, he added.
Lalmohan Sethi, Additional Commissioner, Transport, Road Safety said, “We often ignore the fact that faulty road designs in many cases are major cause of road accidents. The training is planned to understand how road accidents occur due to faulty designs, which factors influence risks and what determines crash severity. Based on this understanding, they would be able to decide how to design roads to prevent accidents effectively.”
Sanjay Biswal, Joint Commissioner, Transport, Road Safety emphasised on 4Es of road safety – Education, Enforcement, Engineering, Environment and Emergency care. Among others, Sudhi Ranjan Mishra, Superintending Engineer, ISAP, Works department and Niranjan Padhi, Additional Chief Engineer, NH, Works department were present.
Pune-based Central Institute of Road Transport (CIRT) is the knowledge partner for the event. The experts from the institute will share insight into road safety, road safety audit, basic principles like Haddon’ Matrix Safety System approach, Vision Zero, emerging technologies in road designs and construction.
