Efforts on to improve road engineering, auto manufacturing: Gadkari

Nitin Gadkari said that efforts are being made to improve road engineering, automobile manufacturing and emergency services, and cooperation of all stakeholders is necessary to improve road safety

Union minister Nitin Gadkari on Tuesday said that efforts are being made to improve road engineering, automobile manufacturing and emergency services, and cooperation of all stakeholders is necessary to improve road safety.

The government is also planning to conduct road safety audit in order to improve the quality of roads and reduce accidents, the minister of road transport and highways said.

Speaking to the reporters on the sidelines of AIMA National Management Convention, the minister also termed the death of former Tata Sons chairman Cyrus Mistry earlier this month as "very unfortunate" and shocking.

On road safety, he said, the education and cooperation of people is very important and various initiatives through campaigns and advertisements are being taken to improve safety of people on the road.

"....road safety is the highest agenda for all of us," Gadkari said.

The minister also said that on September 28 he will kick off a trial project involving Toyota's new car that will be be powered by flex-fuel.

"That day is not far when the cars will run 100 per cent on ethanol instead of petrol," the minister said, adding that as a result pollution will be reduced, import bill will come down and ultimately the farmers will be benefitted.

Mistry, 54, was killed in a car crash in Maharashtra's Palghar district near Mumbai on September 4 when his luxury car hit a road divider.

Mistry, an Irish citizen and scion of the real estate behemoth Shapoorji Pallonji Group, was travelling from Ahmedabad to Mumbai.