Kerala's Road Safety Authority remains a paper tiger

THIRUVANANTHAPURAM: The high praise over the ‘changing’ road safety rules in Kerala has now ended as a paper tiger but nothing else. Despite having crores in government coffers, no money is being effectively used to ensure road safety. The interference of various government departments affects the functioning of the independent authority. The meeting of the Authority chaired by the Minister of Transport is supposed to be held once in six months but has been delayed for a long.

The study to be conducted with Natpak to find the accident spots on the roads could not be undertaken as the finance department cited roadblocks. The list of black spots for 2023 was also not released. The Finance Department has also opposed the Rs 6 lakh study using GIS mapping to find black spots. This happens while 50 per cent of road safety cess and fines for traffic violations go to the authority's account.

Executive Director T. Elangovan resigned one and a half years ago and Directors Rajagopal and Sivaprasad resigned three years ago. Still, replacements have not been made by the road safety authority. Only two directors and five employees are currently in the authority. DGP Nitin Agarwal is the road safety commissioner.

• Road Safety Authority was formed for the first time in the country in Kerala.

• After 2012, the neighbouring states formed the authority emulating Kerala. They are progressing while Kerala is at a standstill finding it difficult to reduce accidents.

• In a study conducted by the Authority and Natpak in 2019, 75 roads in the state were identified as high-risk areas.

• In 23 of these it was found that there was no need to acquire land to complete the curve, but that project also got dropped. The project was handed over to the Public Works Department but no further action was taken.