Bhubaneswar, Mar 20 (IANS): As many as 16,820 driving licences have been suspended in the last two months in Odisha for violation of various traffic norms, the State Transport Authority (STA) said on Saturday.

The Regional Transport Officers (RTOs) across the state have suspended 16,820 DLs during January and February for various road safety violations like over speeding, drunken driving, red light jumping, using mobile phone while driving, overload, not wearing helmet by rider or pillion etc.

While 7,960 DLs were suspended in January, 8,860 DLs were suspended in February, the STA informed.

The DLs have been suspended for a period of three months as per the directions of the Supreme Court committee on road safety.

During the two months, the highest number of 11,613 DLs were suspended for not wearing helmet by rider or pillion while 1,922 DLs were suspended due to overspeeding and 1,322 for using mobile phones.

The RTOs suspended 387 DLs for overloading, 316 for drunken driving, 313 for carrying passengers in goods vehicle and 282 for red light jumping.

Notably, the government has made it mandatory for both the rider and the pillion to use helmets from January 1.

RTO Bhubaneswar has suspended 3,016 DLs, closely followed by RTO Cuttack (3,003) and RTO Rourkela (1,483).