Odisha Police Plan Highway Patrolling For Safe Driving

Bhubaneswar: Come January, Odisha police is likely to launch a patrolling project to check rash driving, regulate traffic and prevent accidents on national highways passing through the state.

The Transport department has sanctioned Rs 10 crore to police for the project, which will be implemented in phases. Police will hire some retired personnel from the force and vehicles for the special highway patrolling.

In the first phase, the system will be launched on highways in the Bhubaneswar-Puri, Bhubaneswar-Balasore, Manguli-Angul and Sambalpur-Rourkela stretches.

“We are giving finishing touches to the highway patrolling system, which will be introduced for the first time as part of road safety measures. Each patrolling stretch will be divided into specific zones depending on the length of roads,” a Times of India report quoted the DGP, BK Sharma, as saying.

“It will be a two-shift patrolling with each police unit covering a stretch of 30-35 km. The presence of highway patrolling units will instil a sense of fear in rash and drunken drivers and will help in checking crimes as well,” the DGP added.

Sharma further said police were taking a number of initiatives to revamp the traffic system across the state, including intensifying enforcement of the amended Motor Vehicles (MV) Act.

Earlier, Chief Minister Naveen Patnaik had asked police and transport authorities to go easy against traffic violators for three months.