Road accident situation ‘extra critical’ in India than COVID-19: Nitin Gadkari

Image Source : FILE/PTI Road accident situation ‘extra critical’ in India than COVID-19: Nitin Gadkari
Terming the highway accidents situation in India “much serious than COVID-19 pandemic”, Union Minister Nitin Gadkari on Tuesday mentioned greater than 40,000 kms of highways have been introduced below security audit to verify deficiencies inflicting accidents. It is a sordid state of affairs that Indian roads witness 415 deaths per day in accidents, the best on the earth, and losses quantity to three.14 per cent of the GDP, Road Transport and Highways Minister Gadkari mentioned.
 
India accounts for the best highway accidents globally, with 1.5 lakh individuals being killed and extra 3.5 lakh crippled yearly.
 
“Seventy per cent deaths are within the working age group of 18 to 45 years outdated. There are 415 deaths per day in highway accidents in India. I might say this situation could be very a lot critical than COVID-19 pandemic and it’s turning into an alarming state of affairs for us 12 months on 12 months.
 
“Unfortunately we stand at position 1 in the road accidents in the world, ahead of US and China. Being transport minister, I am sensible and serious for the subject,” Gadkari mentioned.
 
He was talking after inaugurating a webinar collection by highway security physique IRF’s India chapter on ‘Road security challenges in India and Preparation of an Action plan’.
 
Stating that highway security audit throughout totally different phases of growth seems to be essentially the most appropriate approach to appropriate all deficiencies inflicting accidents, the minister mentioned greater than 40,000 kms of highways have been introduced below auditing.
 
“The road safety institutes like IRF along with engineering colleges and IITs 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,” he mentioned.
 
Underlining that ‘prevention is all the time higher than treatment’, the minister lashed out at individuals behind defective detailed mission reviews (DPRs) and sought collaboration from the International Road Federation (IRF) and different our bodies for vetting these in a fortnight’s time.
 
“Many of DPRs are in very bad shape with lots of technical deficiencies which create further black spots (accident spots). DPR should be proof-checked and revised by competent authorities, third-party agencies, and educational institutions before implementation,” Gadkari mentioned.
 
The authorities has proposed a State Support Programme to incentivise the states with Rs 14,000 crore funds, out of which Rs 7,000 crore can be from the Asian Development Bank and World Bank and the steadiness Rs 7,000 crore from the Centre to enhance highway security, he mentioned.
 
Wondering why different states had been lagging on the highway security entrance when Tamil Nadu may cut back highway accidents by 38 per cent and deaths by 54 per cent, the minister urged states to copy the Tamil Nadu mannequin. He additionally harassed the necessity for qualitative, complete and uniform accident knowledge assortment and recording.
 
“In India, 78 per cent of road accident deaths are of two-wheeler riders, bicyclists and pedestrians. Protection and safety of these vulnerable road user group is the foremost priority of the Centre,” he mentioned.
 
The minister sought the co-operation of all stakeholders to cut back highway accident deaths by 50 per cent by 2025 and exuded confidence of attaining it.
 
The minister additionally harassed the necessity for growing digital applied sciences, drones and app-based platforms and mentioned over 60 per cent of the accidents happen on the highway junctions, which clearly signifies that there are deficiencies of their design and building.
 
“Can we find alternate solution for junctions by redesigning them into roundabouts/rotaries, grade separators, flyovers or channelised diversions,” he mentioned, and added the ministry is engaged on greater than 5,000 black spots recognized on the freeway community.
 
Gadkari additional mentioned the chairman of the National Road Safety Council might be introduced quickly as this physique might be answerable for gathering accident knowledge and suggesting measures to additional cut back highway accidents.
 
Stressing that 70 per cent of accident deaths In India are as a result of over-speeding, the minister mentioned health verify of all autos has been mandated by means of Automated Vehicle Inspection and Certification (I&C) centres.
 
“Government has lately introduced scrapping coverage to cope with outdated, unfit autos and their security concern.
It is predicted that greater than 1 crore such autos can be eliminated,” he mentioned.
 
The authorities plans to shift autos to alternate gas and vitality sources like ethanol, methanol, Bio-CNG, LNG, and electrical energy to cut back dependence on fossil fuels.
 
Okay Okay Kapila, President Emeritus, IRF, mentioned, “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 …reducing the road fatalities to half by 2030 aligned to the Sustainable Development Goals.”
 
For implementing and implementing the Motor Vehicle Act 2019 in sincerity, the federal government ought to take away the human interface from enforcement and extensively use Intelligent Transportation System (ITS) applied sciences to seize visitors violations, Kapila added.
 
Others current within the webinar included Luciana Iorio, Chair – UNECE Road Safety Committee; Bill Halkias, President, IRF Geneva; and T Okay Amla, Secretary, IRF India, amongst others.
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