Bihar Transport Minister Chandrika Ray today told he state Legislative Assembly that road accidents have declined in the state by 17 to 20 per cent after prohibition was implemented.
"As per the estimated figures available to the department so far, road accidents and road deaths have declined by 17 to 20 per cent since prohibition was implemented in Bihar last year," Ray said.
He was speaking during a debate on his department's budgetary allocation of Rs 60.05 crore for 2017-18 which was subsequently passed by the ruling benches amid walk out by BJP led NDA members in protest against the government's decision not to hold debate on important health department.
"Though the entire figure was not available with the department but I believe that prohibition has benefited a lot in checking accidents on roads," the minister said.
The minister said this when Speaker Vijay Kumar Choudhary asked him to tell whether prohibition had its impact on reducing the road accidents in the state.
He also said, that due to state government's sustained efforts towards road safety, the number of road deaths have come down to 4867 in 2016 from 5421 in 2015.
With a view to check road accidents and provide job opportunities to youths by imparting skills, the state government is setting up a modern "Driving Training cum Research Institute" (DTRI) at Aurangabad, he said and added that the Institute, which is being set up on PPP mode, is spread across 23 acres of land and the estimated cost of the land will be around Rs 25.15 crore.
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Taking forward the state government's women's empowerment agenda, the minister announced that the Transport department would give cent per cent tax exemption if vehicles like three-wheeler, taxi, motor cab, Maxi cab, etc, are registered in the name of women or run by women having valid license.
Similarly, the government would extend same the benefit to differently abled persons in the registration of vehicles used by them except the fees realised for registration and renewal by Ministry of Road Transport and National Highways, he said.
The differently abled persons will also get free pass to travel in Bihar State Road Transport Corporation (BSRTC) run buses, he said adding that JP Senani will also be entitled to get free pass on BSRTC buses.
Stating that the Transport department witnessed a tremendous growth both on revenue collection and registration of vehicles in past one decade, the minister said the revenue collection of the department has increased to Rs 1070.97 crore in 2015-16 from Rs 200 crore in 2006-07, registering an annual growth of 17.39 per cent.
Against the target of Rs 15,00 crore in 2016-17, the department, so far, has been able to rake in Rs 1100 crore by the end of February 2017 and the collection is expected to touch Rs 1200 crore by the end of current fiscal.
Similarly, the state has also witnessed a huge surge in registration of vehicles that rose to 7,04,733 units in 2015-16 from 1,47,309 units in 2006-07, Ray said.
BJP's Arun Kumar Sinha had moved a cut motion but he was absent when the motion was taken up for voting as his party BJP had walked out of the House.
