KHARAR, Jan 15: The Punjab government, with an aim to control road accidents in the state, has formulated a comprehensive plan to strictly implement the traffic rules on all the state and national highways. The Kharar-SAS Nagar national highway-21 will be made a "No Overtaking Zone" during the first phase of this plan, said Punjab Transport Minister Raghbir Singh during a chat with ENS.It may be recalled that in the absence of any steps by the state government to control traffic on this highway, Kharar witnessed a marginal increase in road accidents during 1998. Majority of these road mishaps occurred on the stretch between Kharar and SAS Nagar bridge because of heavy inflow of traffic. The traffic on this road is increasing day-by-day as all vehicles on way from Chandigarh and vice-versa ply on it. The Kharar-SAS Nagar road, also known as the "death stretch", is not wide enough to cope with the heavy traffic. Hardly any day passes when there is no accident on this road.Pedestrians have to wait for a long time to cross the road. A proposal to have a separate cycle track on this road was made during the Chief Ministership of Giani Zail Singh but the project had not materialised so far.The Transport Minister said a National Road Safety Organisation would be set up in the state. Besides, three new Drivers' Training Schools would also be opened. He stated that in future, driving licenses would be issued only to eligible candidates who get training from these schools.
