Itanagar: Arunachal Pradesh on Sunday entered the Guinness Book of World Records by forming the largest helmet sentence to highlight the importance of road safety, especially in the mountains.
A total number of 2,350 helmets were used to form the sentence ‘Jai Hind’ this morning at the Gyalwa Tsangyang Gyatso high altitude stadium, Tawang, an official release said.
Arunachal Pradesh Chief Minister Pema Khandu blew the whistle at 6.30 am to start the proceedings of helmet formation. By 8 am, the helmet sentence formation was completed, with Khandu along with MLAs of Tawang and West Kameng districts leading to place the helmets according to the formation.
The event titled ‘Lakshya’ – to create road safety awareness – was organised by Amazing Namaste Foundation in collaboration with the Arunachal Pradesh government
Khandu and Atul Kulkarni, Chairman of Amazing Namaste Foundation, jointly received the Certificate of Confirmation from the Guinness Book of World Records representative Swapnil Dangarikar.
Speaking on the occasion, Khandu said that awareness on road safety measures and adherence to traffic rules has become all the more important with improved roads in the hills.
“People, especially youths riding bikes, tend to drive faster and faster on good roads. It has been found that over-speeding is the major cause of accidents on our roads here. Therefore, this event and the creation of a world record would draw attention of the people towards road safety and mandatory use of helmets while riding two-wheelers,” he said.
A survey carried out by the Government indicates that about 1.5 lakh precious lives are lost annually in road accidents in India. With the improvement in road network and quality and better vehicles, there is a need to create awareness among the riders, drivers and general public to follow traffic discipline as well as driving protocols.
“Making it to the Guinness Book of World Records with ‘Jai Hind’ formed with the largest number of helmets, is not only a message to people of Arunachal but from all over India who come visiting our mountainous state and get carried away by the natural beauty and quality of roads. Follow traffic rules and use helmets,” Khandu added.
To mark the event and create awareness on road safety, a bike rally was also organized that started from the famous Tawang Monastery and culminated at the stadium via Maratha Ground. The bike rally comprising of about 200 riders from various parts of the state and CRPF personnel, was also joined by Khandu. He later handed over souvenirs to the bikers appreciating their participation and contributing in creating awareness on road safety.
The event was also attended by Tawang MLA Tsering Tashi and all four MLAs of West Kameng – Phurpa Tsering (Dirang), Kumsi Sidisow (Thrizino-Buragaon), Dongru Siongju (Bomdila) and Darjee Wangdi Kharma (Kalaktang) besides officials of Tawang district administration, the release added.
