Odisha’s Commerce and Transport department has launched a drive against underage driving by seeking written undertakings from schools and coaching centres. The institutions will be required to prohibit minors from driving to their campuses and to alert authorities if parents provide vehicles to underage students. The initiative is intended to reduce road accidents involving young riders.

Officials said minors often lack the impulse control needed for safe driving and can struggle with emergency braking and identifying hazards. They also linked teenage driving risks to speeding, jumping red lights, using mobile phones while driving and failing to wear seat belts.

The action is being implemented under the department’s month-long Seva Sankalp Abhiyan, which runs from 17 September to 17 October. Regional Transport Offices and additional Regional Transport Offices in seven cities have been instructed to identify educational institutions where underage driving is prevalent. Offices in Cuttack, Bhubaneswar I and II, Balasore, Sambalpur, Rourkela and Berhampur, along with the Khurda Assistant Regional Transport Office, will collect undertakings.

Institutions will also be asked to inform the department when a parent hands a vehicle to an underage child. Authorities have warned that violations can attract heavy fines, vehicle impoundment, cancellation of registration and legal action against the parents. The department will conduct road safety slogan and painting competitions for students of Class VIII to X as part of its awareness programme.

Regional offices have been directed to work with institutions near highways to educate students and parents about safer journeys to and from school and careful road crossing. The department has also ordered training for drivers and conductors at major bus stands on evacuating passengers during a bus fire. The directive follows the deaths of nine passengers when an air-conditioned sleeper tour bus caught fire on the Yamuna Expressway in Greater Noida on 23 September. Bus owners are being advised to install equipment required to handle fires.