KARACHI, Nov 4: The city government has selected the government schools located on University Road from NIPA Chowrangi to Jail Chowrangi to impart road safety education among students in the first phase.

Officials in transport and communication department said that there were 4,000 government school in the city that would be included in the campaign step by step.

Earlier, a campaign was initiated by the Traffic Engineering Bureau (TEB) of defunct KMC, but, it was stopped after the inception of city government in 2001.

The city government’s printing press has completed the printing of posters and pamphlets and handed over the same to transport and communication department.

An official of transport and communication department said that 1,700 posters and 2,000 pamphlets had been printed, which would be distributed in the first phase among the school children who were more prone to road accidents.

It is pertinent to note here that around 600 people are killed in Karachi due to road related accidents annually. Out of these accidents, half of the victims are pedestrians.

The official said that the objective of this campaign was to spread awareness among students about the road safety rule. The University Road had been selected because there were a large number of government schools located on this one of the busiest thoroughfares of the city, he pointed out.

He said that the city government had also planned to construct four pedestrian bridges on different points of this road to reduce the ratio of accidents on this road.

As the construction of bridges would take a long time, the official added, it had been planned to start road safety education in schools at the moment. —PPI