District-level panels to be formed to check road accidents

Union Road Transport and Highways Minister Nitin Gadkari on Saturday said district-level committees will be constituted to check road accidents.

He said the committee in each districte will be headed by the MP. It will visit the scene of accident, find out the reason and suggest corrective measures.

In his speech at the Indian School of Business Leadership Summit, he said a provision of Rs 12,000 crore had been made to clear the 'blackspots' (accident prone spots) as road engineering is identified as the main cause of the accidents.

Admitting that road accidents is a big problem and one area where he could not have much success, he claimed that his ministry was taking all steps to check them.

Gadkari said when he took over the number of accidents every year was over 5 lakh and the number of deaths was 1.5 lakh. He said for the first time this year the number was reduced by 4 to 5 percent.

He hoped that with several measures being taken, the number would reduce by 50 percent when he completes his five-year term.

The minister gave a detailed account of the performance of his ministry and explained how the quick decision making process and transparency brought the change.

He said the ministry was now laying 28 km road per day as against 2 km when he took over as the minister.

He claimed that no project is stalled and this saved saved Indian bankers of NPAs of Rs 3 lakh crore. The ministry already signed contracts for Rs 6.50 lakh crore.

--IANS

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