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Journalism of Courage
MUMBAI, Sept 26: The Western India Automobile Association WIAA has criticised the environmentalists8217; stand on the West Island Freeway project. Terming objections to the project as frivolous and inconsequential, Nitin Dossa, president of WIAA, said the government should not allow objections by environmentalists to override the larger interest of the city.
Dossa was addressing members at the 78th annual general meeting of the association here on Saturday. Touching on the traffic problems affecting the city, he said there was no co-ordination between various government agencies and departments and it was absolutely necessary to have a single ministry for traffic which could take charge of traffic police also.
The association was establishing the WIAA Castrol Institute of Motoring to improve road safety and bring down accidents. The institute was being established in Ahmedabad and was being financed by Castrol to the extent of Rs 80 lakhs, Dossa said. The institute would be ready by April 1999 and planswere afoot to start such centres in Mumbai and Pune. In this direction, WIAA will also open driving schools at Mumbai, Pune, Ahmedabad and Goa.
The recommendations made by WIAA at a seminar on traffic solutions was being followed up by officials from the Brihanmumbai Municipal Corporation, Brihanmumbai Electric Supply and Transport among others, Dossa added. He also said the life time tax imposed by the Maharashtra government had reduced the association8217;s income and services. WIAA was now trying to diversify into insurance and travel, he said.
Although in the automobile sector, the seller8217;s market is gradually becoming a buyer8217;s market, the deeply entrenched thinking and mindset of the car manufacturers and car dealers has not yet fully changed, he said.
