Road Safety Bill in Budget session of Parliament

The proposed Road Safety Bill, which aims at setting up a National Road Safety and Traffic Management Board, will be tabled in the Budget session of Parliament, said a senior official.

The Committee on Road Safety and Traffic Management had recommended the creation of such a board, which was earlier opposed by the law ministry on the grounds that safety is a state subject and the Centre did not have the authority to set up such a Board.

The Board will also be provided financial autonomy through the creation of a National Road Safety Fund, which will get one per cent of the total cess collected on petrol and diesel (which is Rs 14,000 crore annually).

The members and chairman on the Board will be experts in the field of road engineering, automobile engineering, traffic laws and medical care. They would be selected by a search-cum-selection board under the cabinet secretary.

The Board’s job would be to advise the central government on administration of road safety laws and recommend standards for design, construction and maintenance of national highways, safety standards for motor vehicles and standards for establishing and operating trauma facilities on national highways.

It would also conduct road safety audits on highways and mechanically-propelled vehicles and establish procedure and methodology for data collection, transmission and analysis of road accident data at appropriate level.

Over 1.2 million people die each year on the world’s roads, and between 20 million and 50 million suffer non-fatal injuries. Road traffic injuries are one of the top three causes of death for people aged between five and 44 years. And, India is among the top in the global list of fatalities and injuries.