Abhay Sapre, former Supreme Court judge and Chairman of the Supreme Court Road Safety Committee, directed officials to strictly enforce traffic rules and consider a ‘No Helmet, No Fuel’ policy to curb accidents in district. At a road safety review meeting at Niyojan Bhavan, Sadar, Sapre said India records nearly five lakh road accidents and around two lakh deaths annually. He called for coordinated efforts to achieve zero accidents in Nagpur and sought action-taken reports by December. He asked Government departments, industrial groups and educational institutions to deny entry to people without helmets or seatbelts.

 

He stressed strict action against violations, alongside public awareness campaigns. The Education, Transport and other concerned departments were asked to coordinate these efforts. Maharashtra has nine districts, including Nagpur, among the country’s 100 accident-prone districts. Rural areas record more accidents than urban areas. Narrow roads, heavy vehicle movement, reckless driving and inadequate streetlighting were identified as major causes.

 

Sapre directed authorities to ensure prompt medical assistance and shift accident victims to the nearest hospital. Officials said city has around 3,000 CCTV cameras and that awareness initiatives and other measures had helped reduce accidents and deaths. Vishwas Nangre Patil, Police Commissioner; Dr Harsh Poddar, Superintendent of Police; Aditya Mirkhelkar, Deputy Commissioner of Police (Traffic); and Leena Upadhye, Chief Engineer, Nagpur Municipal Corporation, attended the meeting.