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Kolkata / March 16^th, 2018: As safety leader, Toyota Kirloskar Motor (TKM) today announced the launch of its ‘Safety Model School’ in association with Topsel Toyota in Kolkata at The Heritage School, Kolkata. The holistic program on road safety, being a part of ‘Team Toyota Activity’ (TTA) aims at educating school children, teachers, parents and school bus drivers on responsible safety habits, thereby building safer roads for both drivers and pedestrians. This is the sixth ‘Safety Model School’ initiated by Toyota in the country, and the first in West Bengal. Topsel Toyota, one of Toyota’s premium dealerships in East India has joined hands to improve the road safety scenario in Kolkata, by imparting the best road safety knowledge to school children and educating them on good road sense.

Toyota follows an integrated safety approach towards addressing the grave issues of road safety in our country, aiming to build a safer community by adopting 3 dimensional concept – Manufacturing Safe Cars, Developing Safe Drivers & Building Safer Environment.

The inauguration event was graced in the presence of the chief guest Mr. T K Rudra, IAS – Director, Transport Department [West Bengal], along with Mr. Ashok Manaktala, Chairman & Mr. Amit Manaktala, Managing Director from Topsel Toyota and senior management of Toyota Kirloskar Motor, Mr. Akito Tachibana - Managing Director and Mr. Naveen Soni, Vice President.

Recent studies show that there is a significant need to synergy the safety approaches to reduce the number of accidents on Indian roads occurring on a daily basis, often extremely fatal, claiming hundreds of lives on the roads. According to a survey conducted by the Ministry of Road Transport and Highways, India saw 146,377 mortalities in the year 2017, and around 460,000 people were injured in road accidents, of which 68.6 percent of the victims were in the 18-45 age group reflecting the severity of such incidents.*

Toyota has been working on improving the road safety conditions in our country since 2005. This Safety Model School has been successfully implemented covering Kochi, Delhi, Varanasi, Hissar and Rewari, with promising impact on behavioral changes amongst school children on road safety.

Team Toyota Activity is implemented by Toyota in partnership with business partners to create safety minds in the society. This is one step forward to develop the road simulation infrastructure at select schools and give practical training to children towards building right road users. The focus is to inculcate the right attitude by creating a “safety model school” to further expand its reach outside the school premises through strong road safety sense. Children are the main influencers. They play a key role in transforming the society we live in. Thus, this intervention focuses towards developing the school children to be a responsible road users thereby spreading the safety culture from school to society at large. This program also ensures wider road safety awareness and behavioral change of the school bus drivers through various levels of interactions.

Toyota has been implementing road safety program from 2007 onwards through its flagship program ‘Toyota Safety Education Program’ [TSEP], targeting school children on PAN India basis. This year, the focus has been to bring the behavior change amongst the future road users and hence TTA has come to a reality.

TKM pioneers in implementing the road safety program and this year marks the 10th anniversary of TSEP implementation [launched in 2007] has till date covered more 700,000 school children across India bringing about a positive change in the behavior as road users.

We are working with various stakeholders – school, business partners and police to take this initiative to manifolds.

Commenting on their association with TKM for the cause of road safety Mr. Amit Manaktala, Managing Director – Topsel Toyota, said, “Teaching children basic yet sensible tips to respect road rules at a very young age can go a long way. It is our privilege to be aligned with Toyota Kirloskar Motor in their safety mission, and we sincerely hope that the safety model school initiative will effectively ingrain positive road safety behavior among students and train them to follow traffic rules and procedures. We believe that these school children will develop to be road safety ambassadors, who shall work on formulating a constructive transformation in community’s approach to behave safer on our roads.”

Speaking on the occasion, Mr. Akito Tachibana, Managing Director - Toyota Kirloskar Motor said, “More often, road accidents occur due to preventable reasons such as violation of traffic rules, driver’s negligence, not using helmets, etc. To reduce traffic related incidents, we need to promote a culture of conversation and action right from a very young age. We strongly believe - the children to be the key in bringing about the desirable changes in the community & transform the outlook of the people. At Toyota, SAFETY is top priority. Through Toyota’s “Safety Model School” initiative implementation, our objective is to sensitize & train the school children on various road safety aspects such as traffic rules & road safety habits, which will pave way to build a Quality environment for all to live and also to promote a “safety culture” to value human lives. We acknowledge the valuable support of Topsel Toyota, and are delighted to join forces with them in our key mission to make Indian roads safer.”

Team Toyota India is a distinctive group formed by Toyota in association with its dealer and supplier partners towards impactful societal contribution. Team Toyota India works with a mission to create a Better India and a Better World for everyone to live in. It works as one team with one goal integrated with its business partners in each region. Till date, Toyota has covered more than 5,000 school children through implementation of this road safety action plan across India.

Further to reiterate company’s vision of "Safest Car with Safest Driver”, ‘Toyota Driving School’, one of its kind in the country was launched in 2015 with an objective to train the student to be a responsible and safe driver. With the launch of Toyota Driving School across India, the company aims to bring down the rising number of road accidents caused majorly due to human error. The training module integrates technical expertise along with enhancing behavioral skills to create awareness about safety nationwide. Toyota Driving School has till date enrolled 3500 plus students with 13,000 plus enquiries. By 2020 the company plans to cross 50 such schools across India, voicing their traffic safety commitment louder.

Source: MoRTH Report

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Overview of TKM

Company name	Toyota Kirloskar Motor Private Limited
Equity participation	TMC: 89%, Kirloskar Group: 11%
Number of employees	Approx. 7000+
Land area	Approx. 432 acres (approx.1,700,000 m2)
Building area	74,000 m2
Total Installed Production capacity	Upto 3,10,000 units

Overview of TKM 1^st Plant

Established	October 1997 (start of production: December 1999)
Location	Suburb of Bangalore, Karnataka State
Products	Innova, Fortuner manufactured in India. Prado, Land Cruiser and Prius imported as CBUs.
Installed Production capacity	Upto 1,00,000 units

Overview of TKM 2^nd Plant

Start of Production	December 2010
Location	On the site of Toyota Kirloskar Motor Private Limited (on the outskirts of Bangalore, Karnataka State)
Products	Corolla Altis, Etios, Etios Liva, Etios Cross, Camry & Camry Hybrid
Installed Production capacity	Upto 2,10,000

For any further Queries please contact:

Toyota Kirloskar Motor Pvt. Ltd.	Creation
Priyanka Bhattacharya Mobile : +91 84960 43131 Email : priyanka_bhattacharya@toyota-kirloskar.co.in	Kaveri Mandanna Mobile :+91 90089 59697 Email : kmandanna@webershandwick.com