Under its social responsibility banner, “Concern Beyond Cars”, Indus Motor Company Limited (IMC) and NED University of Engineering & Technology (NED) have partnered to improve the deteriorating condition of safety on roads in the country. The two year contract was signed by IMC Chief Executive, Ali Asghar Jamali and NEDs Registrar, Ghazanfar Hussain, at the company’s headoffice.
The “Road Safety Improvement Project”, entails NED carrying out an in-depth research on traffic congestion and identification of high accident prone spots spanning ten major arterials in Karachi whilst also creating traffic safety awareness through campaigns, amongst children and young adults. Adding to it, a Traffic Circulation Improvement Plan will resultantly be developed to help the government and law enforcement authorities to implement the same.
Commenting on the alliance, Mr. Jamali said, “The first step of solving a problem is recognizing that there is one. What we experience on the roads of Karachi on a regular basis is not just appalling but evidence enough that the problem needs some serious addressing. As a step in that direction and because of the strong connect traffic safety has with our business, IMC has rolled-out an ambitious plan to reign in the injuries and fatalities caused by road accidents occurring on a daily basis. IMC and NED have embarked on this project that will gather research data which will prove to be the groundwork for improving the dire road safety situation in the city. I will urge all other corporates to follow suit as road safety in not just one person’s responsibility, it is a collective effort.”
Dr. Afzal Ahmed, Assistant Professor, Urban & Infrastructure, NED in his comments about the elaborate project stated, “NED University prides itself in being the premier research hub of Pakistan. We are extremely proud to align with IMC in pooling in resources to minimize the occurences of traffic accidents on the roads of our beloved city. It is the academia-industry alliances like these which will surely benefit Pakistan exceedingly and abundantly for generations.”
The research includes the usage of modern technology to conduct different stages of research. These research stages include, but are not limited to gathering road development plans, heavy traffic surveys, 3D modeling simulations, compilation of data to report, identification of black spots to the digitization of this data. All of this valuable data will prove highly beneficial to the government and law enforecement authorities in assessing which pressure points and problem areas to address.
In the past, IMC and NED have also partnered on two projects vis. “Toyota Road Traffic Injury Research” between 2007 and 2011 and “Traffic Research on Traffic Congestion” between 2012 and 2013 both of which had far reaching results both at a national level and internationally.