The concept, a part of the department's `Traffic Management Plan', will use a Geographical Information System (GIS). Explains Deputy Superintendent of Police Subhash Trivedi, who is with the STB, ``GIS is primarily computer software developed by STB to identify the requirements and problems faced on the highways.''

He said it offered pre-planned remedies to policemen, who often felt helpless in the absence of strategies to deal with mishaps on the highway.

GIS, he added, will help policemen identify the territorial limits of highways and the points where help is readily available.

Trivedi said he found this package unique in terms of identifying accident-prone points on 236 State Highways and eight National Highways, with an emphasis is on National Highway 8 and 8-A, where fatal mishaps are common.

The STB, it is learnt, isactive on 11 routes of the 1,538 km of highways in the State, and not on National Highways 14 (Radhanpur to Amirgarh), 15 (Samkhiyari to Sanchor), 6 (Surat to Songadh), 8-A (Kandla to Ahmedabad) and 59 (Ahmedabad to Dahod), due to shortage of manpower.

Trivedi says, ``The package will put the entire state highway network on computers, identifying the total length, staff deployed, accident-prone zones on that route, number of hospitals in the vicinity, address and telephone number of doctors in the area and the availability of ambulances.''

The STB has been working on the project for a year and will take another year to complete it for implementation. It has prepared an action plan to control serious road accidents, besides highway route maps, showing details of blood banks, hospitals, non-government organisations, hotels, petrol pumps, telephone numbers, identified accident-prone zones and alternative routes during traffic jams.

The department has, however, a long way to go, in terms of recruitingstaff, and augmenting resources like vehicles, cranes, computers, well- equipped traffic aid posts. It plans to start a traffic education school for policemen and organise a permanent traffic exhibition to educate the public.

Fatal Statistics

In 1995, 3,825 fatal accidents were registered on Gujarat's highways, which went up to 4,015 in 1996, and 4,451 in 1997. The number of serious accidents was also as high as 6,213 in 1997, compared to 5,012 in 1995.

But the first six months of 1998 showed some change, with 2,429 fatal and 3,333 serious accidents registered on the highways. In all, 2,846 persons died and 4,703 were seriously injured in these mishaps.

At highways and sensitive points where the STB conducted its vigil, the number of accidents was comparatively less. It was 2,585 in 1995, 1,209 in (January to April) 1996 and 1,482 in (January to June) 1998.