SOS booths on highway must be repaired

Around 30,000 vehicles ply the highway daily. No maintenance work has been undertaken for these booths, a police officer has told this paper, adding that since these kiosks are essentially dead, signboards with emergency numbers have come up on the roads

Nearly 50 booths installed on the Mumbai-Ahmedabad national highway, which are to be used in emergencies, are dead. Called Save Our Souls (SOS) booths, they have a button that, when pressed, alerts emergency services to rush to the spot. But an on-ground investigation by a mid-day reporter brought to light that even the telephones installed inside these kiosks have 
been stolen.

Around 30,000 vehicles ply the highway daily. No maintenance work has been undertaken for these booths, a police officer has told this paper, adding that since these kiosks are essentially dead, signboards with emergency numbers have come up on the roads. 

However, it is shocking that these SOS booths are dysfunctional. People’s taxes go towards setting up such infrastructure and there must be a concerted effort to safeguard public property.

Here, we must display the will to get to the bottom of how exactly these booths are being tampered with and the equipment being filched. Security cameras will give some indication as to what is happening and how these thefts have occurred.
It should not take a reporter’s on-ground visit to highlight this situation. And if the authorities are aware of the matter, there has to be solid action and remedial measures.

We are laying great stress on our road conditions in the wake of high-profile fatalities. A rule mandating seatbelts for passengers in the rear seat of cars is set to come into effect soon. In such a scenario, how can you explain emergency booths being tampered with and phones missing from these kiosks? Foolproof measures must be adopted with newly installed booths that cannot be broken into. These measures are absolutely necessary, so the authorities need to get cracking soon.  

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