Govt targets road safety audit of 3,000 km of highways in 2016

Concerned over rising accidents, government today said it will conduct road safety audit of 3,000 km of central and state highways this year.
India accounts for 5 lakh road accidents annually in which 1.5 lakh people die and another 3 lakh are crippled for life. The loss due to this is equivalent to 3 per cent of the GDP of the country.
"This year, our ministry is targeting 3,000 km to be covered under safety audit. Road safety audit guidelines are being followed in the current NHAI projects," Road Secretary Sanjay Mitra said here.
He was speaking at a seminar jointly organised by Road Ministry and International Road Federation (IRF) as part of the ongoing National Road Safety Week.

"We are also planning to engage the state governments to undertake safety audits of state highways and district roads," he added.
Road Safety Audit involves evaluating highway improvement scheme during design, at the end of construction and post construction, to identify road safety problems and to suggest measures to eliminate or mitigate any concerns.

These audits are undertaken by teams of specialists trained in the skills of road safety engineering. Strategic road schemes and the majority of new works are required to have an independent Road Safety Audit to take corrective measures to reduce accidents, Mitra explained.
"Government is also planning to launch a programme to sensitise and educate truck drivers on road safety on the lines of AIDS awareness and prevention programme launched for heavy vehicle drivers several years ago," he said.

Under the programme, all medium and heavy vehicle drivers will be educated about careless driving and on the benefits of road worthiness of vehicles, the Secretary added.
IRF Chairman KK Kapila said India has the highest number of accidents in the world.
"With 80 per cent of all road deaths globally estimated in the low-income countries, India leads the world in road accident deaths with around 1,40,000 people being killed each year. India accounts for 10 per cent of global road accident deaths," he pointed out.
Safer roads and mobility is one of the five pillars of the UN Global Plan for the Decade of Action for Road Safety 2011-2020, Kapila added.

"We urge the Centre and the States to fix killer accident prone black spots in Delhi and other parts of India. These black spots, which are accident-prone sites, have been identified by the Delhi Traffic police as well as the Union Ministry of Road Transport and Highways," he said.
Several measures including amendment in Motor Vehicle Act (MVA), improvement in roads from engineering perspective, road safety audits in all stages of road construction as well as the identification and remedy of black spots will help reduce fatal road accidents, Kapila said.