We had Deputy RTO Mr. Anand Patil as a chief guest for todays’ meeting.He explained the difference between RTO (Road Transport Office) and Traffic police. RTO has 14 regions in Maharashtra and is responsible for what can be used as transport in the region and who can drive it. While traffic police is responsible for the traffic discipline on road, traffic jams and parking etc.
He gave statistics that in Thane District there are 3000 KM of Roads and about 19.11 Vehicles of various categories. This means more than 6000 Vehicles per km road. Hence the problem of traffic jam and parking space will get more acute in future.
What is more drastic fallout of this and unsafe driving is that there are close to 1100 fatalities in more than 3000 accidents per year (Statistics of last year 2007). Which means we loose more people in road accidents in Thane district alone than any national calamity or the war in past. In my opinion if we put national loss @ Rs. 10 Lakh per life then the loss is staggering Rs 110 Crore per year and growing.
We all must support RTO and Traffic Police in making driving safe and pleasurable
Rtn Pramod Ambekar
