Nitin Gadkari emphasizes combined efforts to curb road accidents

Pointing out towards 36 percent improvement on national highways and 26 percent on State highways, the Minister informed that black spots are being identified and repaired at a fast pace.

Union Minister for Road Transport & Highways and MSMEs Shri Nitin Gadkari has emphasized upon combined efforts to curb accidents on roads. He said the Ministry is working on reducing deaths on the roads by half in the coming days.

Addressing the 18th Meeting of National Road Safety Council (NRSC) and 39th Meeting of Transport Development Council (TDC) in New Delhi today, Shri Gadkari called upon the transport ministers from all the States to prepare a roadmap in this direction without bothering for the expenses. He said, there is no dearth of resources for infrastructure development in the country, the need is only for a coherent approach to serve the larger public.

Pointing out towards 36 percent improvement on national highways and 26 percent on State highways, the Minister informed that black spots are being identified and repaired at a fast pace. He underlined the need to include NGOs and engineering students in conducting road audits. Shri Gadkari informed that district-level committees have been formed to examine and suggest such spots that need immediate attention. He said, work on improving road engineering will be undertaken with available resources worth Rs 14,000 crore.

Addressing the participants, Minister of State for Road Transport & Highways Gen (Retd) Dr. V K Singh stressed upon the need to bring about behavioral change towards road safety. He said road discipline should begin from family, school, and society level. Dr. Singh said, he is discussing with States the steps required for improving the thought process of the society towards accidents, and victims, whose life can be saved within the first 'golden hour.'

Transport Ministers and senior officers from various states participated in the meeting and discussed different road safety aspects, including the MV (Amendment) Act 2019; tourist vehicles authorization and permit rules 2019; bus port guidelines; digitization of transport and abolition of border check posts; inter-state transfer of vehicle registration and driving licenses; harmonization of road tax across States – One Nation One Tax; vehicle scrapping policy; guidelines for setting up, authorization and operation of vehicle scrapping facility; and implementation of vehicle tracking platform under Nirbhaya framework.

(With Inputs from PIB)