Agartala, July 14: Tripura has recorded a 13 per cent decline in road accidents over the past year, with fatalities also falling, prompting the state government to expand road safety enforcement and awareness campaigns amid a sharp rise in vehicle registrations.
Announcing the initiative on Tuesday, Transport Minister Sushanta Chowdhury said the state would roll out district-level sensitisation programmes involving the police, district administrations, panchayati raj institutions and public representatives to strengthen compliance with the Motor Vehicles Act and promote safer road use.
The announcement came at the inauguration of a two-day sensitisation workshop, “The Motor Vehicles Act and Associated Rules”, organised to strengthen road safety enforcement through joint training of officials of the Transport Department and Tripura Police.
IGP (Law and Order) Ipper Manchak Dnyanoba, senior traffic police officers, transport department officials and road safety experts from across the country participated in the programme.
The Minister said the number of registered vehicles in Tripura has more than doubled from about 4 lakh to over 8 lakh in the past five years, underscoring the need for stronger enforcement, better inter-agency coordination and sustained public awareness to curb road accidents.
Chowdhury attributed the decline in accidents to coordinated efforts by the Transport Department and Tripura Police, coupled with awareness drives and the implementation of central road safety initiatives.
He said the state records 600-750 road accidents annually and aims to reduce the figure further through stricter enforcement and behavioural change.
Highlighting emergency response measures, the Minister said the Centre’s PM Rahat scheme provides cashless treatment of up to ₹1.5 lakh to eligible road accident victims, with around 60 beneficiaries in Tripura so far.
He added that the Good Samaritan initiative, backed by Supreme Court guidelines protecting bystanders from legal harassment, has helped save 13 lives in the state over the past year by encouraging people to take accident victims to hospitals during the critical “golden hour”.
Emphasising that the objective of traffic enforcement is saving lives rather than generating revenue, Chowdhury said the government plans to take road safety awareness campaigns to every district, subdivision and panchayat, describing public participation as essential to achieving a sustained reduction in road accident fatalities.
