Advisor, Ladakh, Umang Narula reviewed traffic management and enforcement in Ladakh on May 27.

Advisor stated that the documents such as driving licence (DL), registration certificate (RC), pollution-under-control (PUC) certificate, etc. on Digilocker shall be deemed to be legally recognized documents at par with the original documents.

Digilocker is a key initiative of the Ministry of Electronics & IT (MeitY) under ‘Digital India’ which aims at ‘Digital Empowerment’ of citizens by providing access to authentic digital documents to citizens’ digital document wallet.

Advisor impressed upon the concerned officials to launch awareness drives to sensitize people regarding the online apps meant for storing details of vehicular documents. He reiterated that traffic rule violators shall be dealt with sternly and fined as per the law.

While discussing the surge in road rage instances, the Advisor exhorted that the perpetrators must be prosecuted and punished.

SP Traffic, M R Giri apprised the Advisor about the current traffic scenario and various road safety interventions taken by Traffic Police Ladakh. Awareness programmes at schools/colleges, various training and modernization programmes wherein training for traffic refresher course, operation of modern traffic gadgets to jawans, highway patrol, accident rescue, CPR, medical evacuation by ITBP/ UTDRF, etc. were conducted. He also informed that Traffic Enforcement Squads, Traffic Personnel and highway patrol/ambulance vehicles are deployed in both Leh and Kargil districts. Further, he informed about the measures taken for traffic calming & delineation at Khardung La top and installation of road furniture, signage, zebra crossing etc.

He also apprised the Advisor about the future action plans, requirement of manpower and modern gadgets such as Artificial Intelligence (AI) based traffic management systems, etc. Fines collected from traffic violators by Traffic Police Ladakh since its inception was also discussed in the meeting.

Commissioner/ Secretary, H&UDD, Ajeet Kumar Sahu exhorted that wearing reflective jackets shall be made mandatory for the safety of traffic personnel and workers.

The Advisor directed the concerned officials to come up with DPR and future action plans for the proposed construction of a Model Bus Terminal with Integrated Taxi Stand, Mazda Stand, Local City Transport/ Van Transport; development of paid parking and improvisation plan to mitigate the perennial traffic issues.

The meeting was also attended by ADGP, Ladakh; SSP, Leh; Comm/Secy, RD&PR Dept; Superintendent of Police, Leh/Kargil; Deputy Commissioner, Leh/Kargil; Additional Secretary, Home Department and other concerned officials.