VECV rolls out Road Safety Programme across India

VE Commercial Vehicles Limited (VECV) has launched a nationwide Road Safety Programme across the country. During 2012, VECV will train more than 20,000 drivers in different cities. In addition to the safe drivers’ mela at Indore, the company’s regional driver trainers will conduct road safety programme covering two wheeler, 3-wheeler, LMV, MMV, HMV, passenger vehicles, school bus and hazardous goods transport drivers. The programme will take place at Delhi, Bangalore, Mumbai, Cuttack, Mysore and Chennai. There will be a special focus on school children in selected schools in all these locations. There will be special screening of Eicher Road safety film for school children (Pehla Kadam Safe Roads Safe Kids). The entire programme will be conducted by involving traffic police, government agencies and local administration. Adequate emphasis has been given for mass media promotion of these programmes so that it reaches the target audience. The Safe Drivers Mela will see the participation of other industry players also who share the same commitment of VECV towards road safety. Around 1500- 2000 people are expected to attend the safety week celebrations. According to Vinod Aggarwal, CEO, VECV, “Our aim is to reach out to more number of drivers across India and train them on different aspects of life & work. We intend to train around 20,000 drivers in 2012. It is also heartening to see the similar kind of commitment from various government agencies, industry players and NGOs. We are committed towards safety and would be holding similar kind of practices in future also to reiterate VECV’s commitment to road safety and driver training.” Speaking on the occasion, A.K. Birla, Executive Vice president, VECV, noted: “Our organisation has been in the forefront of honing driving skills through Eicher Driving training programmes. In 2011, our organisation had also imparted Road Safety education & defensive Driving training for market Drivers of Commercial Vehicles, Passenger Vehicles, School bus and Hazardous goods Drivers”. Around 1,500 drivers were trained across the country during the road safety week last year. These activities were done involving Traffic police, Local administration, Transport commissioner & Collector, Transport Association & SIAM. Large STUs like BMTC and KSRTC were also targeted to cover a large no of drivers. During this year’s National Road Safety week 3500 drivers will be trained. Road safety education programmes were also conducted by Regional driver trainers at their respective locations last year. Around 18,000 drivers benefited from this initiative, he added. VECV’s road safety programme has been organised under the able guidance of A. Nandkumar, General Manger, VECV. An Industry veteran, Nandkumar has been recognised by SIAM for his initiatives on road safety. He was also the member of the international jury at the global film festival on road safety at Morocco. He has received several awards including global recognition of the road safety films at various international forums. The film on “Safe Driving” won an international award in the Global road safety film festival in January 2007 in New Delhi. The second film” Safe Transportation of Hazardous goods” won an award at Paris Global film festival on road safety in October 2008. The third film “Pehla Kadam-Safe Roads-Safe Kids”-road safety education film for children, won an award in Feb 2010 at the Global film festival on Road Safety at Marrakech (Morocco).