Not just drivers, road engineering also responsible for accidents: Gadkari

Union Road Transport and Highways Minister Nitin Gadkari said on Thursday road engineering is one of the key factors for a large number of accidents in the country.

Gadkari said his ministry is getting around Rs 14,000 crore to fix problems in the "black spots" of highways where repeated accidents take place.

"Drivers and vehicles are not alone responsible for the large number of accidents which take place in the country every year. Road engineering is also responsible for many accidents," he said during Question Hour in the Lok Sabha.

Gadkari said the ministry had taken up detailed review of the national highway network to develop road connectivity to border areas, development of coastal roads including road connectivity for non-major ports, improvement in the efficiency of national corridors.

The minister said development of economic corridors, inter-corridors and feeder routes along with integration with Sagarmala and others, under the 'Bharatmala Pariyojana' have been reviewed.

Under this proposal, the ministry has identified stretches for development of about 26,200 km length of economic corridors, 8,000 km of inter-corridors, 7,500 km of feeder routes, 5,300 km border and international connectivity roads, 4,100 km coastal and port connectivity roads, 1,900 km expressways, Gadkari said.