Special security arrangements made to prevent road fatalities during festivals
Kathmandu, September 28
With the festive season just around the corner, traffic police have made special security arrangements to prevent road accidents during Dashain, Tihar and Chhath.
Senior Superintendent of Police Basant Kumar Pant, acting in-charge at Metropolitan Traffic Police Division, said cops, both in uniform and civvies equipped with breathalysers, were deployed in all transits to Kathmandu Valley to catch any one driving under the influence.
“We have started conducting regular and surprise alcohol meter test on drivers, with major focus on long-route buses as people have already started leaving the valley for their home villages and towns to cerebrate Dashain. We are working in a manner to reduce road accident deaths to zero during the festivals,” he informed.
The existing law has adopted zero tolerance towards drink-driving. As many as 177 road accidents were reported in the valley last Dashain, killing four persons and injuring 163 others, seven critically. The main cause of the fatalities was drink-driving.
He warned that drink-driving not only put the driver’s life at risk but also others. Passengers place trust in the driver who is driving the vehicle they are travelling in. “Therefore, on-duty cops will arrest such drivers outright and proceed with legal action against the guilty,” SSP Pant said.
Traffic police have established passenger help desks in 13 places of the valley and they will also do the needful to check drink-driving and enforce traffic rules, besides facilitating travellers and taking action against crooked transport entrepreneurs. Traffic offences increase during the festive season.
Traffic police officials said the help desks were set up to assist people in booking and acquiring travel tickets, given the tickets are not sold out. Ticket booking counters have been asked to display bus fares to ensure transparency. Help desks will also warn ticket booking clerks against possible incidents of double-ticketing, blackmailing, overcharging and selling ticket in black. Officials deployed at help desks will arrest and take action against those involved in fraudulent activities.
Officials have made it compulsory for ticketing clerks to wear ID cards to ensure that ‘frauds do not get to cheat passengers in the name of making tickets available at a cheaper rate’. Officials have appealed all to take precautions and lodge complaints at help desks if they face any problem.
According to MTPD, help desks will check if vehicles are carrying passengers beyond capacity, suffering from technical glitches, allowing passengers to sit atop buses besides taking action against drunk drivers during the festive season when a huge number of people leave the valley for their home villages and towns. For the safety of the commuters, the government required transporter entrepreneurs to have two drivers in each vehicle that ply on the routes that are longer than 250 km to prevent road accidents due to exhaustion.
Traffic police have also stepped up security check on national highways to discourage public vehicles from carrying passengers beyond their capacity and overcharging passengers.