Road Transport Secretary Anurag Jain.
Credit: PTI Photo
Union Road Transport Secretary Anurag Jain was recently fined with three speeding challans as he missed speed limit signs in the national capital. According to his statement as per the Times of India, one of the signages was "almost" behind a tree, making it difficult for any driver to see.
Sharing his experience, Anurag Jain said he has paid challan thrice for speeding, thinking that the speed limit for the route was 60 kmph.
He said, "The system does not recognise who the owner is, and I have paid challan thrice for speeding. But my problem was different. I took up with police the point that the speed signs should be visible to me," as reported by TOI.
"I thought the speed limit was 60 kmph on that stretch and my vehicle was at 61 kmph. Usually, this should not have been the reason for getting a challan," he added.
To clarify the exact speed limit mentioned on the board, Anurag asked someone to go to the spot and check the sign. He found out that the board mentioned 50 kmph as the top speed limit. Later, Jain himself went to check the sign board and mentioned that "the signage was put at a spot, which had a tree in front of it which can be spotted only when one is very close to it".
This is not the first time that someone has missed the speed limit sign and paid challan for the same. Earlier, a similar issue happened with former transport secretary Y S Malik, where he missed a direction sign board on the Delhi-Chandigarh Highway as it was too small to notice.
A study by the Institute of Road Traffic Education suggested that "over 70 per cent of road signs in Delhi are not put according to prescribed norms. The study adds some weightage to this issue of sign boards not being visible to the drivers. Out of 1,514 signs across 14 major stretches in Delhi, 1,098 signs did not meet the prescribed standards".