Tawang district enters Guinness World Records by forming largest helmet sentence

Tawang district in Arunachal Pradesh on Sunday entered into the Guinness World Records by forming the largest helmet sentence to highlight the importance of road safety, especially in the mountains, officials said.

Officials said that a total number of 2,350 helmets were used to form the sentence 'Jai Hind' at the Gyalwa Tsangyang Gyatso high-altitude stadium.

Chief Minister Pema Khandu blew the whistle to start the proceedings of helmet formation and within one-and-a-half hours, the helmet sentence formation was completed, with Khandu along with five MLAs of Tawang and West Kameng districts leading to place the helmets according to the formation.

The event titled 'Lakshya' to create awareness on road safety by making the world record was organised by Amazing Namaste Foundation in collaboration with the state government.

Khandu and Atul Kulkarni, Chairman of the Amazing Namaste Foundation, jointly received the certificate of confirmation from the Guinness World Records representative, Swapnil Dangorikar.

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 youth riding bikes, tend to drive 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.

"Making it to the Guinness World Records with 'Jai Hind' formed with the largest number of helmets is not only a message to people of Arunachal, but for all those 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 said.

To mark the event and create awareness on road safety, a bike rally was organised that started from the Tawang Monastery and culminated at the stadium via the Maratha Ground.

The bike rally, comprising about 200 riders from various parts of the state and CRPF personnel, was joined by Khandu.