Union Government unveiled measures to improve road safety

Union Minister of Road Transport & Highways and Shipping Nitin Gadkari on 11 January 2016 unveiled measures to improve road safety across the country.

The measures were announced during the launch of the Road Safety Week in New Delhi, which is being organised every year to create awareness among general public to improve the safety on road.

And, the measures announced are part of the Union Government’s concerted action plan to reducing road accidents by half by 2019, and, they include,

• Constitution of the Road Safety Authority to look after overall aspects related to road safety in the county.
• Introduction of the Road Transport and Safety Bill in the Parliament for seamless development of a secure, efficient, cost-effective, sustainable and inclusive transport system for the movement of passenger and freight in the country.
• 11000 crore rupees will spent, between 2015 and 2019, to fix block spots across the country. This measure is in addition to the website that was launched to help in identifying black spots where accidents take place frequently.
• Computers will be used for conducting driving tests to curb irregularities in issuing licenses.
• Airbags will be made compulsory in every car.

Why these measures are needed?

• Around 5 lakh road accidents occur in the country annually and one person being killed in a road mishap every four minutes.
• As per the WHO’s Global Status Report on Road Safety 2015, India has the highest number of road fatalities in the world.
• As per the report, in 2013 alone, around 1.4 people died in road accidents. Among them, around 85 percent are male and mostly in the working age group.
• Road fatalities cause a loss of 55000 crore rupees or 3 percent to the GDP every year.
• The 3.6 Sustainable Development of Goal (SDG) of the UN, which is a part of the health goal, mandates that the number of global deaths and injuries from road traffic accidents should be halved by 2020.

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