Nitin Gadkari claims govt working on 'war footing' towards making roads less accident prone

Expressing serious concern over the rising cases of deaths due to road accidents, Union Road Transport Minister Nitin Gadkari on Tuesday announced series of measures undertaken by the government to prevent road mishaps, asserting that initiative to make roads less accident-prone has been taken up on 'war-footing'.

In his appeal to the public, Gadkari asked people to strictly follow rules and not drive on roads after consuming alcohol.

"The number of accidents are on a rise and it is a matter of great concern for us. We are taking swift measures in this regard. We are paying attention to accident spots. In Himachal Pradesh, we have installed several crash barriers to prevent buses from falling into gorges," he said.

"I have a special request to those who drive to follow the rules. People should not drive after consuming alcohol. There are black spots on district roads, state highways and national highways, we have started covering up them on war footing," he added.

Gadkari said the government is swiftly working to make changes in the Motor Vehicle's Act and has allocated funds to the tune of Rs 11, 000 crores to improve condition of roads.

"The committee that we had formed to make changes in the Motor Vehicles Act, has submitted two reports. Once we get the final report we will go to the parliament. I appeal to people to be careful on roads, follow rules. Innocent people dying on roads is very saddening," he said.

"The Centre has allocated Rs 11,000 crores to work on 726 black spots. 10% of the funds that we have given the state governments is meant for black spots," he added.

Gadkari had earlier on Thursday launched the report 'Road Accidents in India 2015' in the national capital.

Road accidents have emerged as a major problem globally, and more so in India where almost 5 lakh accidents occurred last year, killing 1,46,000 people and leaving thrice the number injured.

With one of the highest motorisation growth rate in the world, accompanied by rapid expansion in road network and urbanisation over the years, our country is faced with serious impacts on road safety levels.

According to the report compiled by the Transport Research Wing, the total number of road accidents increased by 2.5% from 4,89,400 in 2014 to 5,01,423 in 2015.

The total number of persons killed in road accidents increased by 4.6% from 1,39,671 in 2014 to 1,46,133 in 2015.

Road accident injuries have also increased by 1.4% from 4,93,474 in 2014 to 5,00,279 in 2015.

The severity of road accidents, measured in terms of number of persons killed per 100 accidents has increased from 28.5 in 2014 to 29.1 in 2015.

The analysis of road accident data 2015 reveals that about 1,374 accidents and 400 deaths take place every day on Indian roads which further translates into 57 accidents and loss of 17 lives on an average every hour in our country.

About 54.1% of all persons killed in road accidents were in the 15 -34 years age group during the year 2015.