To support the initiative taken by the Ministry of Road Transport & Highways, Mumbai International Airport (GVK MIAL), the operator of the Chhatrapati Shivaji International Airport (GVK CSIA) in Mumbai has kick-started Road Safety Week from January 12- 17, 2015. This initiative was flagged off by the Jt. Commissioner of Police (Traffic), Dr. BK Upadhyay, IPS at an inaugural function hosted at Landside of Level 4 (Departures), Terminal 2.
Also, present on the occasion were Padma Shri Dr. Sundaram Natarajan, chairman and managing director’ Aditya Jyot Hospital, Mumbai; Sanjay Bramhane, director Air Safety, DGCA; Narendra Hosabettu, Sr. VP Environment, MIAL; Hemant Apte, senior vice president, Engineering and Maintenance, MIAL.
In an effort to draw attention to this serious issue and take some constructive steps to make Mumbai’s roads safer, MIAL will be taking this opportunity to enhance the awareness amongst people and focus on improving safety of millions of people travelling on the road throughout Mumbai, as also, advancing road safety in and around CSIA, and in airside where safe vehicle operations is a key to ensuring safety of aircraft operations as well.
MIAL will be conducting an array of programmes during the week from awareness drives to health check-ups at both domestic and international airport focussing on road safety, traffic rules and prevention of accidents. Some initiatives include; small post-its on road safety; display of road safety banners, posters and danglers at identified locations; Awareness sessions on road safety amongst GHAs, Airlines, etc; free vehicle check camp at CSIA; free eye sight check for vehicle drivers; breath analyser test for drivers; spot road safety quiz for passengers in SHAs; road safety quiz competition amongst airlines, GHAs & MIAL
The Road Safety Week is observed throughout India every year under the guidance of the Ministry of Road Transport and Highways, Government of India, from January 11-17 from 2014. India has the second largest road network in the world with over three million km of roads of which 60 per cent are paved. India accounts for about 10 per cent of road accident fatalities worldwide.
As per a UN report, reported road traffic fatalities in the year 2010 in India were 1,33,938 and estimated GDP loss due to road traffic accidents for the year stood at three per cent. In Mumbai, as per Mumbai Traffic Police Records, in the year 2013, there were a total of 23,512 road accidents reported in which there were 502 fatalities.
