Jammu, Jan 22 (KINS): Chief Secretary Atal Dulloo on Wednesday reviewed the implementation of road safety measures recommended by the Supreme Court in Jammu and Kashmir and stressed the need for GIS-based, data-driven interventions to reduce road accidents across the Union Territory.
While assessing compliance with Supreme Court–mandated road safety directives, the Chief Secretary emphasized using detailed GIS and transport data to identify vulnerable and accident-prone road stretches in each district. He said such data-driven identification would help authorities take focused technological, engineering, and enforcement measures to significantly bring down road accidents.
The meeting was attended by Administrative Secretaries of concerned departments, senior Traffic Police officers, and Heads of Departments. Deputy Commissioners joined the meeting via video conferencing from their respective districts.
The Chief Secretary sought a comprehensive status report on the implementation of Supreme Court directions and directed all departments to prepare a clear, time-bound roadmap for compliance. He underlined the importance of using available traffic and transport data to plan targeted safety interventions, strategic deployment of traffic personnel, and engineering corrections at accident-prone locations.
Highlighting deterrence as a crucial element of road safety, he instructed authorities to strictly enforce punitive action against habitual and serious traffic violators. These measures include cancellation of driving licences, registration certificates, and other statutory actions against offenders involved in rash driving and repeated violations of traffic rules.
The Chief Secretary also reviewed the road accident scenario in J&K based on data from the i-RAD portal. He analysed accident trends related to time of day, monthly patterns, district-wise distribution, road categories, and the nature of violations leading to accidents.
Road construction agencies—including PWD, NHAI, NHIDCL, BRO, and SAMPARK—were directed to brief the meeting on steps taken to remove identified black spots as per the Black Spot Protocol. Measures related to traffic calming, installation of safety signage, and fitting of speed-limiting devices in school buses to ensure student safety were also reviewed.
Secretary, Transport Department, Avny Lavasa made a detailed presentation on the functioning of the i-RAD and e-DAR portals. She informed that since the i-RAD portal became operational in June 2022, a total of 20,135 road accidents involving 32,819 persons have been reported in J&K, resulting in 3,688 fatalities and 29,131 grievous or minor injuries.
It was further informed that most accidents occur on major highways, particularly in the districts of Jammu, Kathua, Udhampur, and Rajouri. Data analysis showed that the majority of accidents took place between 3:00 pm and 9:00 pm, with rash driving and over-speeding accounting for nearly 50 percent of road accidents reported during 2025.
The Transport Department shared enforcement statistics, stating that 40,197 challans were issued in 2024 and 52,543 in 2025, generating fines of Rs 10.15 crore and Rs 15.88 crore respectively. Major violations included not wearing helmets, driving without seat belts, using mobile phones while driving, over-speeding, and jumping red lights. In 2025 alone, 1,528 vehicles were seized, 1,641 driving licences suspended, 10,439 vehicles blacklisted, 1,192 registration certificates cancelled, and 300 route permits revoked.
IGP Traffic, M. Suleman, briefed the meeting on the functioning of surveillance cameras installed under the Integrated Traffic Management System (ITMS) and traffic signal cameras under the Intelligent Light Traffic System (ILTS) at major junctions in Jammu and Srinagar. He said the Traffic Police enforced 12,36,380 e-challans in 2023, 15,03,901 in 2024, and 14,92,591 in 2025, imposing fines of Rs 85.16 crore, Rs 120.09 crore, and Rs 145.12 crore respectively. He added that 15,947 vehicles were seized in 2025 for various Motor Vehicles Act violations.
The meeting also reviewed the implementation of the Road Accident Victim Fund, the establishment of trauma care facilities along highways, and the functioning of the Institute of Driving Training and Research (IDTR) at Kot Bhalwal and the Inspection and Certification Centre (ICC) at Samba. The performance of the District Infrastructure Quality Control (DIQC) mechanism in conducting road safety audits across districts was also assessed.
Reiterating the government’s commitment to saving lives, the Chief Secretary stressed coordinated enforcement, engineering solutions, public awareness, and strict adherence to judicial and statutory road safety norms to reduce road accidents in Jammu and Kashmir.(KINS)