Lucknow: An MoU was signed between Transport Department and Maruti Suzuki India Ltd. for free automation at a total of 10 DTTIs (Driving Training and Testing Institutes) and 02 ADTTs at 12 places from CSR funds. On this occasion, Minister of State for Transport (Independent Charge) Dayashankar Singh said that this will prove to be a milestone in the field of road safety.
The Transport Minister said that Uttar Pradesh ranks first in the country in terms of population. It is also the state with the highest number of highways. Under the able guidance of Chief Minister, Uttar Pradesh is continuously progressing in every field. Earlier it used to take 20-20 hours to travel in the state, but now it takes only 07 to 08 hours to travel.
Some time back it used to take 14 to 15 hours to travel from Ballia to Lucknow. Now with the construction of the expressway, this distance is being covered in 04 to 05 hours. Along with this, road safety is also important, in view of this, a big MoU was signed with Maruti Suzuki today for driving institutes at 12 places. This will now make skilled drivers available in the state.
The Transport Minister said that the department has accepted road safety as a challenge and the department is also making continuous efforts to remove the obstacles to road safety. The said MoU has been signed for the operation of DTTI in a total of 10 places in the state, Moradabad, Meerut, Basti, Mirzapur, Bareilly, Jhansi, Aligarh, Devipatan-Gonda, Azamgarh and Muzaffarnagar and ADTT in Azamgarh and Pratapgarh. The Transport Minister has said that very soon Maruti Suzuki will provide 12 driving training institutes to the state.
He said that today the Transport Department is at the top in every field from scrap policy, fitness and driving school. Today the functioning of the Uttar Pradesh Transport Department and Transport Corporation is being praised in other states of the country as well. He said that earlier the facility of driving training was available to pilots flying airplanes, but with the operation of DTTI, this facility will now be available to the general public as well.
He said that driving is not important but it is very important to know all the rules of road safety. He also thanked the officials from Maruti Suzuki who came along with the Chief Minister for this noble work in the interest of the society. There is a provision of a total of 08 types of tests at these centers. He said that before this, the Transport Corporation has signed an MoU with Maruti Suzuki at 05 places such as Ayodhya, Gorakhpur, Varanasi, Prayagraj and Mathura by the Chief Minister. In this way, a total of 17 driving training testing institutes will be operated in the state.
Additional Chief Secretary Transport L. Venkateshwar Lu said that the Transport Department is doing better work under the guidance of Chief Minister and Transport Minister. After accidents, the instructions of sending officers to the accident site and ensuring better treatment are also followed. After the said MoU, the availability of skilled drivers will be ensured, which will also reduce road accidents significantly. Along with this, the department also runs continuous campaigns in the direction of fitness of vehicles and over speeding and over loading. He assured that 100% compliance of the instructions of Chief Minister and Transport Minister will be ensured.
On this occasion, Executive Director of Maruti Suzuki India Ltd. Rahul Bharti said that we thank Chief Minister and Transport Minister for trusting us in such an important project like road safety. Together we will work to streamline and automate the evaluation process of issuing driving licenses. Automation of driving license testing will usher in a phase of positive change. It will play an important role in minimizing road accidents by ensuring that only capable candidates get driving license.
On this occasion, Transport Commissioner Chandrashekhar Singh, MD Transport Corporation Masoom Ali Sarwar, Special Secretary KP Singh, Tarun Agarwal, Senior Vice President CSR Head Maruti Suzuki and other departmental officers were present.