Chief Minister Dr Manik Saha on Friday afternoon flagged off four more Highway Patrolling vehicles to cover the stretch of about 210 kilometers in National Highway-8 from Agartala to Churaibari.

Chief Minister Dr Manik Saha on Friday afternoon flagged off four more Highway Patrolling vehicles to cover the stretch of about 210 kilometers in National Highway-8 from Agartala to Churaibari.

Flagging off the Agartala – Churaibari Highway Patrol at Akhaura Road in front of U. K. Academy in Agartala, Chief Minister Dr Saha said that as promised by the state government and its police administration, within two months, the police administration has started the highway patrolling services in Agartala to Churaibari road.

Earlier, on August 22 last four highway patrolling vehicles were launched to cover the stretch of NH-8 from Agartala to Sabroom.

Dr Saha giving details over the success of highway patrolling said that due to strict and regular surveillance in highways, the road traffic accidents has been reduced about 6%, whereas from 2018 to 2022, the number of vehicles has been increased at 30%. “That means the police administration is controlling the road traffic systems in highways by adopting many measures,” said Dr Saha and added that about 55, 200 numbers of heavy vehicles entered in the state’s territory in every month, which has increases the possibilities of road mishaps, but proper surveillance has reduces the road traffic accidents in highways.

Dr Saha said that strict measures have been taken to control the drug menaces in Tripura and to stop the narcotic route, in which drug smugglers have made Tripura –a corridor for their drug smuggling from Myanmar to Bangladesh via Mizoram, Assam and Tripura. He also said that many measures have also been taken to stop the production and smuggling of Cannabis from Tripura.

Today’s four vehicles will cover eight police stations under Khowai, Dhalai, Unakoti and North Tripura districts through its round the clock operations.

These highway patrol vehicles will help in reducing traffic accidents, checking narco-smuggling, better traffic management, providing safety and improving security coverage, said the Chief Minister and added that these patrol vehicles will also ensure strict implementation of Traffic rules . In addition, these highway patrol vehicles will serve the purpose of saving the golden time in ensuring connectivity with the concerned hospitals and ambulances in case of shifting of any injured owing to road traffic accidents.

Police sources said that in future these highways patrol vehicles will be linked with Emergency Response Support System (ERSS) and service will be ensured by dialing a Pan-India single number-112 for citizens in emergencies and gradually the same will be equipped with breathalyzer, speed cameras, GPS location based equipment, EPOS machine and other equipments.

Police added that in coming days end-to-end connectivity of these highway patrol vehicles will be done from Churaibari to Sabroom to serve the purpose of better services. In days to come incidents of road traffic accidents will be analyzed and timing, location etc of road accidents will be identified and the same will be taken care of by proper utilizing the service of these highway patrol vehicles.

During the flagging off ceremony, DGP Amitabh Ranjan with senior police officials and SPs of concerned districts were also present.