Deaths on the roads will be reduced by half in coming days, says Nitin Gadkari

Union Minister for Road Transport and Highways Nitin Gadkari said that the ministry is working upon reducing deaths on the roads by half in the coming days. He emphasised upon combined efforts to curb accidents on roads.

Addressing the 18th meeting of National Road Safety Council (NRSC) and 39th meeting of Transport Development Council (TDC) here, Gadkari called upon the transport ministers from all the states to prepare a roadmap in this direction without bothering for the expenses, read a statement.

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 per cent improvement on national highways and 26 per cent on state highways, Gadkari informed that black spots are being identified and repaired at a fast pace, the statement said.

Gadkari underlined the need to include NGOs and engineering students in conducting road audits. He informed that district-level committees have been formed to examine and suggest such spots which need immediate attention. He said work on improving road engineering will be undertaken with available resources worth Rs 14,000 crore, the statement added.

Addressing the participants, Minister of State for Road Transport and Highways General (Retd) Dr V K Singh stressed upon the need to bring about behavioural change towards road safety. He said road discipline should begin from family, school, and society level.

Singh said that 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 authorisation and permit rules 2019; bus port guidelines; digitisation of transport and abolition of border check posts; inter-state transfer of vehicle registration and driving licenses; harmonisation of road tax across States - One Nation One Tax; vehicle scrapping policy; guidelines for setting up, authorisation and operation of vehicle scrapping facility; and implementation of vehicle tracking platform under Nirbhaya framework, the statement added.