India stands committed and all set to reducing road accidents by 50 per cent by 2025, Union Minister Nitin Gadkari said today, while seeking Indian corporate sectors, Engineering institutes, and NGO’s co-operation in inculcating a culture on road safety in society and their employees and help the government in road audits and checking faulty Detailed Project Reports (DPR) by engineering consultants .
“The road safety Institutes like International Road Federation (IRF) along with engineering colleges and iIT’s can help the government in road safety audits. Each engineering college can be given about 300-500 Km of road stretch for road safety audit with some financial aid. Third party road safety audits will help in finding engineering faults and correcting them ” said Mr Nitin Gadkari, Union Minister for Road Transport and Highways (MoRTH) said while inaugurating a Webinar Series titled ‘Road safety challenges in India and Preparation of an Action plan’ organised by the India chapter of the International road Federation (IRF), a global body working for better and safer roads worldwide,
“Similarly the Detailed Project Reports (DPR) are ajor cause for road accidents and most of road accidents happen at Traffic junctions mainly due to fauilty DPR prepaired by the various agencies .DPR prepairing people are responsible for road accidents in the country. The engineering colleges and various road safety bodies can help by studying the DPR and recrifying faults in it” said Mr Gadkari.
“As part of the plan to reduce fatalities, the transport ministry has undertaken number of initiatives including a project to rectify black spots, improving road engineering, use of innovative technology to reduce accidents, removal of encroachments on highways, removal of trees obstructing roads, rectifying defective speed breakers m making airbags mandatory in economy cars, and use of ABS brakes and automatic headlight system in two wheelers “ said Mr Gadkari
“The state governments should follow the example of Tamil Nadu government which has seen significant reduction in road accidents and resultant deaths. If Tamil Nadu can achieve it why not other states” the minister said.
” The chairman of the National Road safety Council will be announced soon as this body will be responsible for collecting accident data and suggesting measures to further reduce road accidents in the country” he added
The Webinar Series is being organise with l focus on meeting the target of reducing the road fatalities in the country by half by the year 2030.The International Road Federation (IRF)-India chapter as an integral part of its Mission of Road safety has planned a series of 12 webinars titled “Road Safety Challenges in India & Preparation of an Action Plan” to be held through the year on the important aspects of the 5 Es of road safety. .
“After the non-realisation of the target of UN Decade of Action for Road Safety (2011-2020), the Global Community had decided on 12 Voluntary Targets to be realised for Road Safety by all countries. The First Target identified by the Global Community is for establishing an Action Plan for Road Safety by 2020 for realising the target of “50 by 30”, i.e. reducing the road fatalities to half by 2030 aligned to the Sustainable Development Goals.” Said Mr K K Kapila, President Emeritus, International Road Federation(IRF) speaking at the webinar .
“For implementing and enforcing the Motor Vehicle Act 2019 in sincerity the Government should remove the human interface from Enforcement and extensively use Intelligent Transportation System (ITS) technologies to capture traffic violations. This can easily be done under Public –Private Partnership (PPP)” said Mr Kapila.
“The government should also take steps for implementing Bystander Training Programme should be undertaken in a time bound manner along all National and State Highways to begin with. The automobile industry should be encouraged to develop Motorcycle ambulances as the latest intervention in trauma care . The DRDO Scientists have already developed a Motorbike Ambulance called ‘’Rakshita’’. The auto Industry can manufacture these Motorbike Ambulances which can be deployed in a populated country like ours with massive road network and disproportionately large accidents to save human lives.” Said Mr Kapila.
“The aim of the Series is to educate and campaign for road safety and its components, particularly by addressing all the requirements as detailed in Five Pillars of Road Safety. This Action Plan will then be recommended to the Central and State Governments for their adoption for the decade (2021-2030) with a systematic execution plan, pursued consistently with necessary funding support, to realise the target of reducing the road deaths by half by 2030.” Said Dr S Gangopadhyay, President, India chapter of IRF.
The others who were present at the webinar included Ms. Luciana Iorio, Chair UNECE Road Safety Committee and Mr. Bill Halkias, President, IRF Geneva, Dr. Gangopadhyay, President, IRF India, Mr. T. K. Amla, Secretary, IRF India
