Meanwhile, the Punjab Transport Department was also planning to lay about 3000 km long new link and main roads with the help of the World Bank during the next two years.

Addressing a state-level function organised in connection with the Road Safety Week here yesterday, Mr Mohinder Singh Kaypee, the Punjab Transport Minister, said the process of including 650 new buses in the existing fleet was almost over and these buses would be made available to passengers within next few days.

“Besides, all link roads of the state would be repaired within a year and with this we hope that people of state would be getting better transport facilities. About 3000 km long new link and main roads would also be laid within two years with the help of World Bank,” said Mr Kaypee.

The minister further maintained that all the district transport offices of the state were being computerised to speed up registration of new vehicles and to ensure early delivery of driving licences to applicants.

Referring to the services provided by his department during the Road Safety Week, which concluded in the state today, Mr Kaypee said the pollution levels of vehicles and eyes of drivers were checked apart from making vehicle drivers aware about traffic rules during the week.

Mr Kaypee also inaugurated, www.suvidha.com, the website of the District Transport Office, Kapurthala.

Mr Rakesh Verma, the Kapurthala Deputy Commissioner, said the website launched by the transport department at Kapurthala was very useful as with its help people could get wide range of information about their licences, application forms and about details of vehicle registration.

Giving shocking information about road accidents, Mr Inderjit Singh Grewal, the State Joint Transport Commissioner, said about 80000 people died in road accidents in the country every year. “The number of such deaths in Punjab is around 2500. The only way to decrease this number is effective implementation of traffic rules,” said Mr. Grewal.

Mr Vinay Kumar Bublani, the Kapurthala District Transport Officer, said more and more people would be made aware about traffic rules and safety precaution by the Kapurthala District Transport authorities.

He said the website launched by the department could prove to be immensely valuable to those who wanted to purchase vehicles and to those who wanted to have any information about status of driving licences.