Kolkata: Toyota launches first driving school in eastern India

The driving school is being pursued with the mission “Safest Car with Safest Driver”, the company said.

The school will be managed by one of the dealership agencies in Kolkata, Topsel Toyota.

Suvendu Adhikari, Transport Minister of West Bengal, Alapan Bandhyopadhay, Transport Secretary, Government of West Bengal, Amit Manaktala, Director Topsel Toyota, Ashok Manaktala, Dealer Principal, Topsel Toyota and N. Raja, Senior Vice President and Director, Toyota Kirloskar were present at the programme.

Launched in line with the company’s vision of "Safest car with safest driver”, Toyota Driving School, one of its kind in the country, will ensure extreme importance on making every student a responsible and safe driver, the company said in its release.

The curriculum will be a comprehensive driver training program that will boast of high quality and practical and futuristic training models like the driver simulator mechanism, which is expected to deliver the “Etios Experience”, the release said.

To make this experience as realistic as possible, Toyota has incorporated features like IP, steering, and seats of an actual Etios car. 

N Raja, Director and Senior Vice President, Marketing and sales, Toyota Kirloskar Motor said: “We are delighted to launch our first driving school in East India at Kolkata.  According to statistics of Ministry of Road Transport and Highways, West Bengal is among 13 states in the country recording maximum number of road mishaps.  As Safety leaders in the industry it is our primary mission to ensure safest cars with safest drivers in the country and significantly reduce the traffic accidents with our safety initiatives."

Suvendu Adhikari said: "It's my great pleasure to launch such driving schools in the state as it is the only way of minimizing road accidents in the country.”

If every driver is given proper education and practical training related to driving, then the motto, ‘Safe drive, save life' adopted by the state government will bear fruit, the minister said.

According to Alapan Bandhapadhay, since Kolkata is a metropolitan city, many uneducated and unemployed people from different corners of the country come in search of employment here and driving is the most easily accessible employment for them . But those untrained hands are the reason of maximum accidents happening in the city everyday.

So, to reduce those road hazards he  said, "Very soon, only drivers from the professionally trained sectors would be given driving employment.”

The company also launched a text book in addition to the driving course, to help drivers get a better understanding of training process and to enrich their learning skills.

At the end of the training period, a certificate will be given to each and every trainee, to state the completion of their training procedure.

Ashok Manaktala said: "As the entire training process is quite expensive so it would be difficult for the unemployed drivers to afford the same, but the state government is trying to offer some financial assistance and infrastructural support to help them gain this training.”

He said: " With the growing population in the city, traffic safety has become a crucial concern in the city.  Careless driving, over speeding, not adhering to traffic rules has increased the vulnerability to road traffic accidents leading to fatalities and injuries. We are confident that Toyota Driving School with Toyota’s world-class know-how, professional trainers and a comprehensive curriculum, will be able to inculcate a safer and cautious driving behavior amongst the people in our city."

The company claimed that the training module will integrate expertise along with enhancing behavioural skills to create awareness about safety nationwide.

N.Raja said: "By 2020, we plan to have over 50 such training schools across India.”

IN the near future,we will be launching  six driving schools throughout the country and train around 5,000 students to be a highly skilled driver and safety ambassador,” added he.

(Reporting by Aninnya Sarkar)