Key Points:
- Minister Gadkari said that the Centre’s target is to reduce road accident deaths by almost 50% in the next 3 years.
- “The corporate world should carry out the independent surveys to identify the reasons behind the accidents and a report may be submitted to the NHAI,” Gadkari suggested.
- The Ministry of Road Transport and Highways is actively working to reduce black spots from Indian roads.
Recently, Nitin Gadkari, Minister for Road Transport and Highways and Micro, Small and Medium Enterprises said that the centre has a new target set for the Transport care in the country. Gadkari said that the target is to reduce road accident deaths by almost 50% in the next 3 years.
The Minister was attending a virtual event that was organized by the industry body Ficci. During the event Gadkari said, “Around 1.5 lakh persons die due to road accidents (every year)… My internal target is before 2024, we will reduce deaths and accidents by 50 per cent.”
Months before, Mr. Gadkari said that he hopes reduction in deaths in road accidents to go down by 50% before 2025 and then came this statement of reducing them before 2024. He had also said that if “we keep waiting till 2030, then at least 6-7 lakh people will die more due to road accidents”.
Gadkari stressed on road quality and safety measures on Indian roads to bring down the figures. The Ministry of Road Transport and Highways is actively working to reduce black spots from Indian roads. Gadkari pointed out that around 50% of road accidents are due to road engineering problems. He also said that the World Bank and ADB have already sanctioned a scheme by which the Centre is allocating ₹14,000 crores for states, National Highways Authority of India and other stakeholders to remove black spots.
The four ‘E’s’ of Road safety – Engineering (including road and automobile engineering), Economy, Enforcement and Education is what Gadkari mentioned and said that the Ministry is striving hard to reduce road accident deaths by restructuring and strengthening these four aspects.
“The corporate world should carry out the independent surveys to identify the reasons behind the accidents and a report may be submitted to the NHAI,” Gadkari suggested.
Adding in, Gadkari also said, “This will greatly contribute towards the vision of ‘zero road accident’ in India. The cooperation of NGOs, social organisations, universities is needed for education and awareness.”
The Minister announced that an independent road safety council, headed by a retired IAS officer would come into force within 15 days.
