BackIndia stands committed to reducing road accidents by 50% by 2025: Gadkari
Terming the situation as ‘alarming’, Nitin Gadkari said that India witnesses the maximum number of road accidents in the world, ahead of the US and ChinaHe further said that improved engineering, education, enforcement, emergency care services are some of the steps taken by the government to combat the problem
PremiumNew Delhi: Union road transport and highways minister Nitin Gadkari on Tuesday called for efforts by key stakeholders such as corporates, engineering institutes, and NGOs to ensure that deaths due to road accidents drop by 50% by 2025.
Terming the situation as ‘alarming’, Gadkari said that India witnesses the maximum number of road accidents in the world, ahead of the US and China.
According to official data, as many as 1.5 lakh people die, and more than 4.5 lakh people are injured in road accidents every year in India. Out of this, more than two-third of the deaths are in the age group of 18 to 45.
“The Detailed Project Reports (DPR) are major cause for road accidents and most of road accidents happen at traffic junctions mainly due to faulty DPR prepared by the various agencies….Engineering colleges and various road safety bodies can help by studying the DPR and rectifying faults in it," Gadkari said while inaugurating the webinar series launched by the International Road Federation, India Chapter, on the theme of “Road Safety Challenges in India & Preparation of an Action Plan".
“The road safety institutes like International Road Federation (IRF) along with engineering colleges and IITs can help the government in road safety audits…Third party road safety audits will help in finding engineering faults and correcting them," he added.
The minister further said that improved engineering, education, enforcement, emergency care services are some of the steps taken by the government to combat the problem. The ministry of road transport and highways is also working on correcting the more than 5,000 accident-prone black spots on the highway network. Besides, more than 40,000 km of roadways are being audited for safety.
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