CHANDIGARH: With an aim to curb road accident fatalities using futuristic scientific tools of Artificial Intelligence and Machine Learning, Director General of Police (DGP) Punjab VK Bhawra on Tuesday inaugurated the state-of-the-art Punjab Road Safety and Traffic Research Centre at NRI Affairs Office of Punjab Police here in Mohali. The DGP was accompanied by ADGP Traffic AS Rai, Punjab Traffic Advisor Dr Navdeep Asija and SSP Mohali Vivek Sheel Soni.
The first-of-its-kind advanced multidisciplinary traffic research centre established by Punjab Government with the cost of Rs 2 crores has facilities including Artificial Intelligence, Geo-informatics, 3D mapping, drone surveys, Crash Investigation, accident reconstruction, Road Engineering, and Automotive Safety. The centre comprises Incubation Hub, Conference Room, and Library.
On the occasion, the DGP also released Punjab’s Annual Road Traffic and Accident Report -2020.
The DGP, while taking the round of the newly established research centre, has also inaugurated five Variable Message Signboards (VMS)— a digital signboard, which have been installed at the state border entry points including J&K, Haryana, Himachal Pradesh, UT Chandigarh and Rajasthan to give real-time information and alerts on Traffic Congestion, Weather or to notify any advance or emergency information to the travellers coming to Punjab. More such VMS will be installed at all the border entry points soon, said the DGP.
“The future of Traffic Police will be shaped by factual knowledge and scientific interventions, and this centre will act as an enabler to meet the futuristic challenges and needs of the modern Traffic Management in the State,” said DGP VK Bhawra.
He said that the centre will also act as an advanced training centre for Gazetted Officers of Punjab Police and Nodal centre of Implementation for the Ministry of Road Transport and Highways and Punjab Government’s ambitious iRAD Project.
Notably, the Integrated Road Accident Database (iRAD) Project is an initiative of the Ministry of Road Transport and Highways (MoRTH), Government of India, with the objective to improve road safety in the country by enriching the accident databases.
“The way our vehicle technology and road infrastructure getting upgraded, to meet the future challenges, our enforcement agencies are required to upgrade themselves from an intuition-based method of traffic control or regulation to the modern methods of Traffic Management based upon real-time information,” said ADGP AS Rai, adding that our centre has been planned to act as a bridge to meet such challenges.
According to the data, Punjab has been losing 11-12 useful lives daily in road accidents. In 2020, Punjab recorded a reduction of about 14% in road accident fatalities compared with 2019, following the declining trend of last year. Recent interventions like Black Spot Identification and Rectification Programme, Safe Punjab Programme, Vision Zero Programme by bringing in the road safety expert to solve the problems have achieved significant results in terms of reduction on road accidents and fatalities.
“This is first of its kind research centre in the country conceptualised on the Data to Decision (D2D) approach, and the quality state specific research will shape up the future implementation strategies and will be helpful to optimise the result in terms of reduction on road accidents and fatalities,” said Dr Asija.