Maruti, Haryana to set up road safety institutes

Maruti Udyog Ltd, in partnership with the Haryana government, will set up state-of-the-art road safety institutes in Rohtak and Bahadurgarh, with an investment of Rs 25 crore.

A memorandum of understanding (MoU) for a joint venture between the Haryana Transport Department and Maruti Udyog Ltd will be inked in New Delhi in the presence of Haryana Chief Minister Bhupinder Singh Hooda on November 22.

A spokesman of the Transport Department said Transport Minister Randeep Singh Surjewala and Parliamentary Secretary (Transport) Rao Dan Singh would be present on the occasion.

The spokesperson said the institutes would create qualitative improvement in driving skills and would also aim at bringing in professionalism in their services. The institutes are being built over 10 acres each in Rohtak and Bahdurgarh. In these institutes, more than 15,000 drivers will be trained.

He said each institute would have classrooms, an auditorium, a library, an eye-testing and health checkup room, a dispensary and a trainees' hostel.

Long driving tracks with facilities like electronic signals, sign boards, road markings, etc. would also be provided. Trained instructors will impart theoretical and training to the trainees in any type of motor vehicles.

He said every year 314,000 motor vehicles were registered in the state. There were in all 3.139 million motor vehicles, of which 2.802 million were non-transport while the remaining 337,000 were transport vehicles.

Road infrastructure had not developed in tune with the increase in the number of motor vehicles, he said, adding the analysis of the accident data showed that 83.5 per cent of the accidents took place due to the negligence of the drivers.