21st JULY 2023 ENGLISH TNPSC CURRENT AFFAIRS PDF TNPSC SHOUTERS
Central government issues guidelines for signals on expressways and national highways to improve road safety
- The Ministry of Road Transport and Highways has issued new guidelines for placing notice boards on expressways and national highways. Union Minister of Road Transport and Highways Mr. Endorsed by Nitin Gadkari, the new guidelines focus on further improving road safety by incorporating best practices and global standards to provide improved visual and intuitive guidance to drivers.
- Road signals are an essential component of road infrastructure as they provide important information and instructions to drivers. Accordingly, the Union Ministry of Environment has reviewed the provision of notice boards from an informational and functional perspective to ensure better compliance with relevant IRC codes and guidelines, existing practices prescribed in various international codes and traffic regulations.
- These guidelines are designed to provide drivers with clear and concise guidance, warnings, notices and regulatory information to facilitate smooth and safe travel on the roads.
- Some salient features of the guidelines are as follows - Improved Visibility and Reliability: Prioritizing improved visibility by placing road signals at appropriate height / distance, large letters, symbols and short legends for quick understanding by drivers, ensuring that important information is easily visible and understandable even in adverse conditions.
- Image depictions for intuitive communication: Image representations with text to effectively convey essential messages, thus serving diverse groups of road users, including those with limited literacy.
- Regional Languages: Recognize a multilingual approach to road signals that include both English and regional languages, ensuring effective communication with diverse road users, promoting better understanding and adherence to traffic regulations.
- Focused Lane Discipline: Special attention has been paid to promoting better lane discipline by providing strategic positioning with clear and intuitive guidance to drivers, encouraging adherence to designated lanes and reducing traffic congestion.
- Phased implementation: Initially these guidelines will be implemented on all upcoming highways, expressways and greenways. Additionally, highways experiencing high traffic volume with more than 20,000 Passenger Car Units (PCU) will also be prioritized for implementation of these guidelines.
- These guidelines highlight the government's commitment to improving road safety standards across the country. The best
- By adhering to practices and global standards, MORTH aims to provide a safe and efficient travel experience to all road users and further progress towards accident-free roads.
- Sri Lankan President Ranil Wickremesinghe has arrived in India on a 2-day official visit. When he came to India, Union Minister of State for External Affairs V. Muralitharan welcomed. In this situation, Sri Lankan President Ranil Wickremesinghe met Prime Minister Modi today.
- In this meeting they discussed bilateral relations, arrest of Tamil Nadu fishermen and welfare of Sri Lankan Tamils.
- After this, agreements between the two countries including public relations, air services, energy, passenger ferry services between Tamil Nadu's Nagapattinam and Sri Lanka's Kangesanthurai, UPI money transfer were signed in the presence of Prime Minister Modi and Sri Lankan President Ranil Wickremesinghe.
- It may be recalled that during the economic crisis in Sri Lanka, India had provided around $4 billion in rapid aid between January and July 2022.
- Sri Lankan President Ranil Wickremesinghe also met businessman Gautam Adhani who proposed to set up a green hydrogen plant in Sri Lanka. There his group is already developing a container terminal and a 500 MW wind farm project. Adani met Ranil Wickramasinghe and discussed the ongoing projects and the new initiative.
- For MLAs Constituency Development for the financial year 2023-2024 Rs. The Tamil Nadu government has issued an ordinance releasing funds to the tune of 351 crores. The Tamil Nadu government has issued an order to release 50 percent of the administrative sanction of Rs.702 crore.
- Accordingly, it has given administrative permission to allocate funds of Rs.702 crore at the rate of Rs.3 crore per assembly constituency.
