‘Safe road to schools’ to be implemented in 15 schools

Thiruvananthapuram: Fifteen schools in the city have been chosen to be included under the ‘Safe Road To Schools’ project, which is being jointly implemented by Kerala road safety authority and Natpac.The schools included in the project are: Fort High school; Fort Girls Mission High school; Fort UP school; Valiyathura Government Regional Fisheries Technical Vocational higher secondary school; Karamana Government HS, LPS and Nursery; Chalai Government high school; Government Tamil HSS, VHSS & TTI, Chalai; Kazhakkoottam Government Higher Secondary School; Government City Vocational Higher Secondary School, PMG; SMV Government Model Higher Secondary School, Thampanoor; LMS UP School, Palayam; Government Model HSS for Girls, Pattom; Thampanoor UP school and Government Central High School, Attakulangara.A total of 100 schools located near accident prone spots on roads, especially near busy junctions and highways, have been identified across the state as part of the project which aims at ensuring safety of students and pedestrians by devising safety measures for motorists and pedestrians within a kilometre from the school gate.The school authorities and students will be trained and supported to conduct the safety audit of their premises and implement corrective measures as part of this initiative.A report titled ‘Legislative Gap Analysis and Assessment of Supreme Court Committee on Road Safety Guidelines in Kerala’ prepared by the Centre for Environment & Development notes that one of the major lacuna observed by the study is the total negligence of the local body authorities (grama panchayat, municipality and municipal corporation) in road safety related issues. There is an urgent need for giving proper capacity building of the local bodies in this direction. They may be involved in the activities by proper training and capacity building programme by Kerala Institute of Local Administration (KILA) to develop their own road safety plans, the report noted.The draft road safety vision Kerala document prepared by Natpac lists around 12 pedestrian/road user related causes of road accidents. Non adherence to traffic rules, careless walking on the carriageway, crossing the road abruptly, mental aberration, social tension, visual acuity issues and lack of road discipline are a few reasons identified by the Natpac.The service level benchmark analysis on road safety in the CMP (comprehensive mobility plan) report shows that non-motorized transport and pedestrians are observed to be unsafe on the streets in the city.The draft master plan 2040 also identifies five areas and streets which could be pedestrianized completely for safety and walkability. The draft master plan proposes only the use of bicycles in these stretches.
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