The sexagenarian solo rider, Sharat Sharma, who has been riding on his motorcycle on a mission reached Imphal, the capital of Manipur.
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With the message to inculcate safe riding habit and follow traffic rule and to curb the menace of road mishap, this motorcyclist for whom age is no bar is travelling across the Northeast as part of his nation-wide awareness tour.
Interacting with media at the Manipur Press Club, Sharat Sharma, retired editor of Times of India was of the view that his tour to spread awareness on rash driving began from Delhi on March 18 and it will complete by September.
He also informed that he will visit all the 29 states, Bhutan and four other union territories.
Out of these, he has so far covered 14 states covering 28,000 km on his bike.
From Manipur he will drive towards West Bengal via Siliguri.
From West Bengal he will move towards Jharkhand, Orissa, Chattisgarh, Andhra Pradesh, Telangana, and Karnataka from where he will proceed down south to Tamil Nadu.
He said that the frequent road accidents have inspired him to take up this ambitious journey which is also giving him immense exposure to know about the diverse people, culture and heritage of this vast country.
According to Ministry of Transport report, as many as 4,80,652 accidents took place during 2016-17 across the country that took as many as 1,50,785 lives.
According to statistics, 60 per cent of deaths were caused due to over speeding and 46.3 per cent of those who died were between the age group of 18-35 years.
Among this group, 52,500 were bikers and 18.3 per cent of them did not wear helmets.
The bike accidents usually took place because of rash driving, over-speeding and flouting traffic norms.