Transport Department of Assam & Honda 2Wheelers India celebrate; 1st anniversary of Safety Driving Education Centre (SDEC) in Guwahati
Guwahati : Instilling positive awareness on road safety among the riders and drivers of Guwahati, Honda Motorcycle & Scooter India Pvt. Ltd. (HMSI) and Transport Department of Assam celebrated 1st anniversary of its Safety Driving Education Centre (SDEC) at District Transport Office, Kamrup (M), Betkuchi in the august presence of Shri Numal Momin (Department Speaker, Legislative Assembly of Assam), Shri Gautam Das (Assistant Commissioner of Transport & District Transport Officer, Registraion & License, Kamprup (Metro), Betkuchi, Guwahati, Assam), Shri Roy Singh Rongphar (Motor Vehicle Inspector, Kamprup (Metro), Betkuchi, Guwahati, Assam).
In February 2020, Honda Motorcycle & Scooter India Pvt. Ltd. (HMSI) in association with Transport Department of Assam inaugurated their first Safety Driving Education Centre (SDEC) of Assam in Guwahati to intiate a unique ‘Road Safety Training’ exclusively for all two-wheeler & four-wheeler learner license applicants.
Driving road safety awareness amongst the new riders and drivers of the city, HMSI announced that through its daily trainings, it has educated over 7,000 learner license applicants of Guwahati since its inception. In addition to this, HMSI’s safety instructors at Guwahati SDEC have spread road safety awareness to over 9,000 people of the city through its digital ‘Honda Road Safety E-Gurukul’ during the COVID-19 lockdown as well as classroom trainings.
Sharing his thoughts on this occassion, Mr. Prabhu Nagaraj, Senior Vice President – Brand & Communication, Honda Motorcycle & Scooter India Pvt. Ltd. said, “Road safety has been a major cause of concern in India. In 2019, Assam reported over 8,000 road accidents*. Lack of knowledge of road safety is one of the main causes of accidents. To enhance their basic Road Safety awareness, HMSI with Transport Department of Assam started a pre-Learner License Registration training for all learner licence applicants of Guwahati and are happy to have completed 1 year of this collaboration successfully. Moving forward, we will continue to instill more discipline among the learner license applicants and make them responsible road users in future.”
About HMSI’s road safety training at Safety Driving Education Center at Guwahati
HMSI’s 2-hours free-of-cost mandatory training educates learner license applicants through theory session on road rules & regulations, road signs & markings, driver’s duties on road, riding gear & posture explanation and safe riding etiquettes. This is followed by a practical training on Honda’s virtual road safety simulator to increase an applicant’s risk prediction ability before they start riding on roads.
HMSI’s entire road safety awareness program is developed keeping contact-less learning a priority. Honda safety instructors adhere to strict Government guidelines and ensure safety of participants – right from sanitization, temperature check at entry point to maintaining minimum 6 feet distance between applicants inside the classroom, to certificate handover and exit.
Honda Motorcycle & Scooter India Pvt. Ltd’s CSR commitment towards Road Safety:
For Honda globally, road safety comes first. Fulfilling its corporate social responsibility (CSR), HMSI has been promoting road safety in India since its start in 2001. Today HMSI’s road safety awareness initiative has already spread to over 41 lac Indians. Its team of skilled safety instructors conduct daily programmes at its 10 adopted traffic parks across India and 7 Safety Driving Education Centres (SDEC).
Not only this, all 1000+ dealerships of HMSI across India spread road safety awareness. HMSI’s proprietary virtual riding simulator increases the risk-prediction ability of riders; while new customers too are given pre-delivery safety advise (PDSA) before they start riding at every dealership across India.
Additionally, ensuring that learning doesn’t stop in the New Normal, HMSI started the digital road safety education initiative – Honda Road Safety E-Gurukul. Since its start in May’20, this initiative has sensitized 6 lac+ Indians on importance of being aware & responsible road users.