Bhubaneswar: The Odisha Government is taking proactive steps to reduce road accidents in the state. As part of this initiative, the team from IIT Madras, which has partnered with the government, met with DGP YB Khurania yesterday. Today, the team visited Berhampur in Ganjam district and held discussions with Berhampur SP Shravana Vivek and IIT Madras Professor Venkatesh Bal Subramanian on road safety measures.

Ganjam is one of the districts where road accidents remain a major concern. The discussion focused on analysing the causes of accidents in the district, particularly over-speeding and drunk driving and formulating strategies to curb them. The team emphasised the need for public awareness campaigns to instill a stronger sense of responsibility in following road safety regulations.

The team also visited black spots—high-risk accident-prone areas—in Berhampur and identified engineering flaws in road infrastructure. It was decided that these issues would be reported to the concerned departments for immediate action. Additionally, awareness efforts will be intensified in accident-prone areas to encourage safer road behavior among the public.

Another key point of discussion was increasing citizen participation in road safety and the measures that can be taken by the administration to involve the public more actively. To enhance enforcement, it was decided to increase traffic monitoring, particularly during peak accident hours.