A plethora of competitions, events and an awareness run are being conducted by the Centre of Excellence for Road Safety, IIT Madras, in partnership with the Greater Chennai Traffic Police
Indian Institute of Technology Madras’ Centre of Excellence for Road Safety (CoERS) is partnering with Greater Chennai Traffic Police to celebrate the Road Safety Month 2024 organised by the Ministry of Road Transport and Highways (MoRTH) through a series of events from 16th January to 14th February 2024.
The competitions being conducted include short film making, photography and essay writing on the theme of road safety for different age groups.
An awareness run titled ‘Run 5K for 5Ks’ was flagged off by Shri G Venkatraman, IPS, ADGP, Tamil Nadu Police and Shri R Sudhakar, IPS, Additional Commissioner (Traffic), Greater Chennai Traffic Police, in the presence of Prof. Venkatesh Balasubramanian, Head, CoERS, IIT Madras. The 5K run took place on 21st January to raise awareness on the 5Ks – keep lane discipline, keep priority for pedestrians, keep adhering to speed limit, keep helmet usage mandatory, and keep seat belt usage mandatory.
Adding to this, the CoERS volunteers also took the stage at Phoenix Marketcity in Velachery, Chennai, on 20th January 2024 for a road safety awareness flash mob and engaged the general public through ‘vox pop’ interviews on road traffic rules and safety.
The road safety essay challenge is being conducted for high school students across the nation on the topic ‘Steering towards road safety: my vision for safer roads’. Additionally, road safety photography and film making competitions are also being conducted under the subject of ‘My life, my safety’.
Participants are encouraged to post their submissions online which will later be evaluated by judges. Entries for the Essay Challenge for students, Short Film-Making and Photography competitions are ongoing, and submissions can be made at https://bit.ly/RSM2024.
Speaking on the occasion, Prof. V. Kamakoti, Director, IIT Madras, said, “At IIT Madras, we are committed to bringing about social change through various initiatives. Conditions prevalent in India provide us with opportunities to provide solutions to address different problems when it comes to making our roads safer. We have worked on several other initiatives in the past on improving driver behaviour and through this Road Safety Month initiative, we hope to sensitise the younger generation – who will be the drivers of tomorrow – towards safer driving practices.”
Flagging off the ‘Run 5K for 5Ks’, a road safety awareness run, Shri R. Sudhakar, IPS, Additional Commissioner (Traffic), Greater Chennai Traffic Police, said, “If people understand a road and interact with it properly then there will be no accidents. Our aim is to make Chennai a no-accident city and we are proud that Chennai is one among the metropolitan cities where road accidents have come down. Through events like these, we aim to further raise awareness and urge the public to support our endeavour.”
The key outcomes targeted from the events include:
- Active public participation and engagement to spread awareness on the importance of road safety.
- Providing a platform to showcase individual talents.
- Sensitising the general public on the importance of safe driving practices.
Elaborating on the initiative, Prof. Venkatesh Balasubramanian, Head, CoERS and RBG Labs, Department of Engineering Design, IIT Madras, said, “Going to zero road deaths should be our aim. Talking about Road Safety alone is not enough, we all have our role to play in keeping our roads safe. Our request to the general public is for them to step up and actively work towards reducing road crashes and fatalities.”