Higher penalties result in safer roads, claims DIG NH&MP

ISLAMABAD: With the ever-expanding Motorway network around the country, the National Highways and Motorways Police (NHMP) is all set to deal with the enhanced expectations and operational challenges.

In an interview with The News, Deputy Inspector General Operations and Evaluation, NHMP, Jan Muhammad said that to cope with the increasing responsibilities, the NHMP is recruiting 2000 more staff with 1,000 already under training.

“In 1997, the NHMP started with 536 people and jurisdiction of 365 km. At this time, we are around 8,000 officers and jurisdiction of 4,000 km, which will probably go to 6000 to 7000 in the next three to four years,” he said adding around 6 per cent of total staff strength is women.

He pointed out that in the next three to four years, the volume of work would be somuch that it would not be possible to manage, control, and regulate highways and motorways manually. “To cope with that, the NHMP is in the process of bringing in Intelligence Enforcement Systems. We will be automating and digitizing things. We already have our web portal, a mobile app NHMP Humsafar and a dedicated helpline 130.”

Responding to criticism around the decision of a massive increase in fines for traffic violations, he said that studies had proved that an increase in penalties results in safer roads. “The Rs750 fine had lost its effectiveness. The number of traffic rule violations was very high in Pakistan as compared to countries where the fines are high.”

He said that only this year from January onwards, 785,000 motorists were fined for speeding on highways and motorways, 1100,000 motorcyclists got fined for not wearing a helmet, and 100,000 motorists penalized for using high beam. For using a mobile phone, 200,000 people were fined while 400,000 got tickets for not wearing seatbelts.

In the last three years, he said that there were 1,700 accidents on national highways and motorways. “As a result of those, we had about 1,200 deaths and 4,000 injuries. This is a big number. New National Road Safety Strategy Goals aim 50 per cent reduction in this number by 2030, which is also one of the Sustainable Development Goals.”

The cabinet has approved a massive increase in fines on highways and motorways. The fine, which was straight Rs750 on every kind of violations, would now be categorized. For speeding, the fine would be Rs1,500 for motorbikes, Rs2,500 for cars, Rs5,000 for trucks, and Rs10,000 for public service vehicles. “The highest is for public service vehicles because they carry about 25 to 30 passengers. They have more responsibility than others,” said DIG Jan Muhammad.