Jammu, 22 January (H.S.): Chief Secretary, Atal Dulloo today while assessing the implementation of road safety measures as recommended by the Supreme Court underscored the need for extensive use of GIS-based data to identify vulnerable and accident-prone road stretches across districts.

He emphasized that such data-driven identification would enable focused technological and physical interventions to significantly reduce road accidents in the UT.

The meeting was attended by Administrative Secretaries of concerned departments, senior officers of the Traffic Police, and Heads of Departments, while Deputy Commissioners participated through video conferencing from their respective districts.

The Chief Secretary sought a detailed account of the Supreme Court directions on road safety and the status of compliance by the concerned departments. He stressed that a clear-cut and time-bound roadmap for implementation of each directive must be prepared without delay.

He called for leveraging available transport and traffic data to guide interventions such as targeted safety measures, strategic deployment of traffic police, and engineering corrections on road patches identified for frequent accidents.

Emphasizing deterrence as a key component of road safety, the Chief Secretary directed the authorities to strictly enforce punitive measures against habitual and serious traffic violators. These include cancellation of driving licences, registration certificates, and other statutory actions against offenders involved in rash driving and non-compliance with traffic rules.

The Chief Secretary also took stock of the road accident scenario in Jammu and Kashmir based on data available on the i-RAD portal. He reviewed accident trends with respect to time of day, monthly patterns, district-wise distribution, classification of roads, and the nature of traffic violations leading to such mishaps.

During the meeting, road construction agencies including PWD, NHAI, NHIDCL, BRO and SAMPARK were asked to brief the meeting on steps taken for removal of identified black spots in accordance with the Black Spot Protocol. The Chief Secretary also reviewed measures related to traffic calming, installation of safety signage, and fitting of speed-limiting devices in school buses to ensure student safety.

Secretary, Transport Department, Avny Lavasa made a detailed presentation on the functioning of the i-RAD and e-DAR portals in the Union Territory. She informed that since the operationalisation of the i-RAD portal in June 2022, a total of 20,135 road accidents involving 32,819 persons have been reported in J&K. These accidents resulted in 3,688 fatalities and 29,131grievous or minor injuries too.

It was further informed that the majority of accidents occur on major highways, particularly in the districts of Jammu, Kathua, Udhampur and Rajouri. Data analysis revealed that most accidents took place between 3:00 pm and 9:00 pm, with rash driving and over-speeding accounting for nearly 50 percent of road mishaps reported during 2025.

The Transport Department also shared enforcement statistics, stating that 40,197 challans were issued in 2024 and 52,543 challans in 2025, amounting to fines of Rs 10.15 Cr and Rs 15.88 Cr respectively. Major violations included non-wearing of helmets, driving without seat belts, use of mobile phone while driving, over-speeding, and jumping of red lights. In 2025 alone, 1,528 vehicles were seized, 1,641 driving licences suspended, 10,439 vehicles blacklisted, 1,192 registration certificates cancelled, and 300 route permits revoked.

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Hindusthan Samachar / Krishan Kumar