After travelling close to 19,000 kilometres by road across Maharashtra in the last four years, former secretary S R Tambe has so far submitted six reports to the government on measures to prevent road accidents. He intends to carry on and cover the remaining 35,000 kilometres of black top (asphalt) roads in the state soon.
His reports and recommendations have been largely responsible for the road fatalities in the state registering a substantial decrease since 1997 when Tambe was appointed to head the Accident Prevention Committee (APC).
In 1995, road accidents in Maharashtra cost 39,000 lives, which rose to 41,000 the next year. In 1997, this figure came back to 39,000, staying at this level even in 1998. By 2001, this figure was down to 36,741, notwithstanding the increasing number of faster vehicles on state and national highways, besides major district roads in the state.
For Tambe, who retired in 1997 as secretary of the public works department, working on the committee (on an honorary basis) has become a mission in life. He lost a near relative to a road accident some years back.
He is quick to share the credit for the effort behind the six reports submitted by him to persons who helped either personally or through suggestions on specific danger spots along the length and breadth of the state. "People like Chandmal Parmar, who set up the Kumari Rajshree Parmar Memorial Foundation after losing his daughter in a road accident days prior to her wedding, and Baba Devare, who is a transporter, have personally taken a keen interest in helping reduce road accidents in Maharashtra," Tambe says.
He added that innumerable suggestions were received through letters after a public awareness campaign was launched. "The general public, NGOs and just about anyone willing to pitch in have contributed to the six reports submitted so far," Tambe notes.
An important aspect that Tambe credits for the implementation of the recommendations of the APC reports was the keen interest in the same evinced by Maharashtra's PWD minister Vijaysinh Mohite Patil.
"In our last meeting, where I submitted the sixth report, the minister sat through for three hours eliciting information on the findings of the committee and the suggested measures. While, for such a meeting, in the normal course, chief engineers would be invited to attend, Patil had invited all superintendent engineers in addition to the traffic department officials as well," he said.
Patil also sought to know the percentage of measures recommended in the APC's sixth report that could be immediately implemented with little cost. "When I informed the minister that around 40 per cent of the recommendations were implementable immediately at little cost, he directed all the 10,000 odd engineers in the state to ensure that these were effected before Diwali. He would review the compliance of his directive once the Diwali season is over," Tambe said.
The measures include removal of illegal encroachments on these 54,000 kilometres of roads in the state. One of the important findings of the APC was that it was in most cases simple adjustments or easy-to-effect measures that could go a long way in reducing road accidents. "For instance some human habitations were found to be located on one side of the road while the ration shop that catered to the village or the community toilet or school was on the other side of the road. Often the needed measures are relatively simple if one puts ones mind to it," Tambe said.
