Cab note on new road safety bill to be circulated by month end

Cabinet note on the proposed Road Transport and Safety Bill, aimed at adopting global best practices, is likely to be circulated by month end.
Ministry of Road Transport and Highways, which is drafting this new bill to replace the existing Central Motor Vehicles Act, is hopeful of circulating the Cabinet note for consideration by other related ministries by October end, an official in the ministry told PTI.
He said the government is currently receiving suggestions and queries from various stakeholders regarding the proposed bill.
The proposed bill will be in sync with practices in six advanced nations - the US, Canada, Singapore, Japan, Germany and the UK.

"Since we are receiving more queries about current central motor vehicles rules more than the suggestions on the proposed bill, we can go ahead with the drafting of Cabinet note and can also circulate it by the end of this month," the official said.
Once the note is circulated and comments received from the ministries' concerned, it will go to the Cabinet for final approval.

After the Cabinet nod, the new bill will be tabled in the Parliament for passage.
Road Ministry is also hopeful of tabling the new bill in the next session -- Winter session -- of Parliament.

Minister of Road Transport and Highways Nitin Gadkari who took charge of the ministry in May this year, said in order to reduce the number of accidents in the country by adopting international best practices, among other things, the government will seek to bring a new Act to replace the existing Motor Vehicles Act, 1988.
The last time the Act was amended was in 2001.
In May 2012, the Motor Vehicles (Amendment) Bill could be passed only in the Rajya Sabha. Therefore without the passage in Lok Sabha it stopped short of becoming an Act.