Looking at the number of increasing road accidents in the state, Maharashtra State Road Development Corporation (MSRDC) will conduct a course on road safety, in collaboration with IIT-Bombay , for the government engineers. The MSRDC deals in road construction in Maharashtra.
Joint Managing Director, MSRDC, Kiran Kurundkar, said that previously road safety was not given importance in the curriculum of civil engineering. As a result, engineers have little knowledge about road safety and roads are constructed without following any scientific norms. Now the institute has come forward to bridge the gap and further plans to offer a certificate course on road safety which will be meant for the Government engineers of the state. Details of the course are yet to be made available.
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Transport activities of the state have wholeheartedly welcomed the move. Commenting on the l ack of the road safety, Ashok Datar, a civil engineer and transport expert said that normally when roads are constructed, more emphasis is given on the speed, instead of safety.
Talking about the initiative being taken by MSRDC, he said that the move on the part of the corporation is very encouraging. They should be more cautious about road safety at the construction stage itself. There is no awareness about road safety in the state. The work undertaken by the corporation in this regard is all the more praiseworthy.
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A recent study on the vehicular traffic and accident-prone areas on a 94-km stretch of Pune-Mumbai Expressway from 2002 to 2014, reveals that 14,500 accidents had occurred resulting in 1,400 deaths.