IRTE and Diageo India partner with Police of Tripura for a National Capacity Building Program

18 Jul 2019 | Press release

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Initiative will help build capacity by training over 150 Tripura Police officers

Agartala, July 18, 2019: Institute of Road Traffic Education (IRTE) and Diageo India today announced the launch of the Road Safety National Capacity Building Program for Tripura Traffic Police. The programme was inaugurated in the dignified presence of Mr Biplab Kumar Deb Chief Minister of Tripura, Shri Rajiv Singh, IPS, Additional Director General of Police (Law and Order) and Dr. Rohit Baluja, President, Institute of Road Traffic Education (IRTE).

Road accidents are among the biggest causes of road fatalities in Tripura fuelled primarily by reckless and distracted driving as well as fewer number of traffic police across the state. Ministry of Road Transport and Highways (MORTH) reports that a total of 161 fatalities took place due to road accidents in 2017 as compared to 173 in 2016. Although the number of fatalities has decreased to 6.9%, the menace continues to frighten the city. In 2017, the number of road accident in Tripura were 503 and people injured due to road accidents were 718. In India, over 4,64,910 road accidents and over 1,47,913 fatalities have been reported during the year 2017.

With the objective of reduce road fatalities and attaining higher levels of effectiveness, the capacity building programme running from July 18-20, 2019 will provide the necessary skill sets to not only investigate and analyse road accident but take steps mitigating steps.

Speaking on the initiative, Abanti Sankaranarayanan, Chief Strategy and Corporate Affairs Officer, Diageo India, said “Diageo India’s ‘Road to Safety’ initiative aims to create the necessary impact to address the appalling state of road safety in our country. Diageo has been working towards support numerous drink drive prevention programmes in India and around the world. Taking a step ahead, our collaboration with the Tripura Police and IRTE will help us resolve the menace of road fatalities and promote road safety. We are thankful to Chief Minister Biplab Kumar Deb for extending his support to the initiative. This support will go a long way towards achieving this vision and creating a national movement around road safety”

Dr. Rohit Baluja, President, Institute of Road Traffic Education (IRTE), said, “Road Safety is the backbone of an efficient and safe traffic management system. We are committed to support the development of need-based training programs for police across the country. Training of traffic police in all domains of traffic engineering, enforcement as well as road crash investigation is of prime importance and IRTE is committed to undertaking the capacity building program for the police force in Tripura in the area of traffic management and enforcement. I would like to thank the Chief Minister Biplab Kumar Deb and congratulate the police in Agartala and Diageo India for having supported this initiative. We are confident that with this training, the state will see further reduction in traffic fatalities on the road.”

The Diageo India- IRTE ‘Road to Safety’ initiative is currently in its 5th Year and aims to provide capacity building training to police officials. Each programme is conducted by an expert panel of faculty of the IRTE. The deliberations include causes and consequences of road accidents, rules of road regulations and understanding traffic control devices.

Since 2014, the programme has trained over 7,755 police and navy officials as well as high-quality breath analyzers to police departments of several states have been donated.