World road body seeks lawmakers' help in reducing fatal accidents

International Road Federation states funds from MPLAD can be used to construct footpaths pedestrian ways, signages, education, road engineering

The International Road Federation (IRF), a Geneva-based global road safety body working for Sustainable Road Mobility world-wide, has appealed to members of parliament (MP’s) and Legislative members  in India to join hands and help reducing fatal road accidents in the country by removing accident black spots in their respective constituencies.

The Ministry of Road Transport and Highways (MoRTH) has identified 726 black spots on national highways and has announced rectifying them with Rs 11,000 crore fund allocated by the Ministry. These black spots are identified accident prone area of the road and where several incidents have taken place.

“The complexity of road safety, more so in a vast country like India, when localised will produce better and faster results.  One such localisation can be implemented through the local area peoples’ representatives – the MPs and MLAs.  As per the current provisions, the Development Funds under MPLAD can be used for construction of footpaths, pedestrian ways, signage’s, education, road engineering etc.”said K K Kapila, Chairman, International Road Federation.

  “The MPs/MLAs, in a show of responsibility towards their area, as a part of the development work, need to encourage and focus on road safety.  In association with the Resident Welfare Associations (RWA’s) As and related local authorities, relevant programmes, such as removal of black spots, construction of footpaths, pedestrian ways, road safety awareness education, traffic obedience and enforcement must be adopted and funded.  This would successfully sensitise the general masses to appreciate the importance of adopting safe road practices,” he added.

 “India accounts for more than 10% of the total fatal road accidents world wide as  the data on road accidents shows that, during the year  2014, about 1.41 lakh people lost their lives in total of 4.5 lakh road accidents and about 4.8 lakh got injured. The fatalities rate had recorded a jump of 3% in comparison to 2013. India being a signatory to the UN General Assembly, which recognized the clear impact of road accidents on global health, adopted 2011-2020 as the UN Decade of Action for road fatalities and accordingly has  set a target to reduce them by 50% by 2020.” said Kapila.