The US will cooperate with India in making its roads safe by offering a range of innovative technology and software in intelligent traffic management to reduce road accidents in the country, Union for Road and Surface Transportation Nitin Gadkari has said.
Acknowledging that road safety is a "big problem" in India, Gadkari said every year more than 150,000 people are killed in five lakh road accidents.
"We are taking the co-operation of the US Government in particularly in road safety and intelligent traffic management system, which we are also going to implement in India," he said.
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"I am very much disturbed (by the status of road safety)," he said.
Gadkari said the US has also promised to give "all technical co-operation for standardisation of our Indian code" for road construction, bridges and flyovers.
"Their experience and their present rules and regulations, codification, all the manuals are there and they are ready to share all types of manuals, code and rules and regulations with us," he said.
"In India we are critically facing the problem of road accidents. We have 96,000 kms of road length as national highway and 40 per cent of national traffic on this two per cent of road. We are facing a lot of accidents on national highway," he said.
"Road safety is highest priority for our government," Gadkari told Indian journalists during a media round-table after his-day long meetings including that with US Transportation Secretary Anthony Foxx and American business community.
"Today we discussed all our problems related to road safety with the (US Transportation) Secretary. The good thing is the Secretary promised me all types of co-operation with the rules, regulations, the software they have already developed, the system, the technology, the innovation. They are ready to co-operate with us in everything," Gadkari said.
During the meeting, the US also promised full co-operation in the development of inland waterways.
The Minister also spoke on new highways under construction in the country, financing mechanisms under PPP models, framing policies for logistics parks, modernisation of roads, building intelligent traffic systems for road safety and further innovation and technology to India's logistics sector.
Rohit Kumar Singh, Joint Secretary, Ministry of Road Transport and Highways, highlighted specific investment opportunities in the highways sector whereas Alok Srivastava, Additional Secretary, Ministry of Shipping, shared details on the Sagarmala Program - the Ministry's flagship port-led development initiative to bring down logistics cost and boost investment, exports, and jobs.
"India needs USD 1 trillion for developing new roads, ports, rail lines, and airports over the next few years and US companies can provide the necessary expertise as well as capital to enable the robust growth of this sector," he said.
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Meanwhile, Gadkari will arrive in New York today from Washington for the second leg of his week-long official visit to the US.
He will visit the state transport department in New York to understand the country's intelligent transport management system, besides meeting investors to seek investments in India's crucial infrastructure sector.
In the city, he will tour the New York City and State Departments of Transportation and meet officials.
His focus would be to understand intelligent transport management, city traffic management and control centre and other technology- based transport solutions, officials said.
During his two-day visit to the city, Gadkari will have a series of interactions with investors at the meets organised by the Indo-American Chamber of Commerce, JP Morgan, Goldman Sachs and the US Indian Business Council.
Officials said some of these interactions will be a follow-up of the deliberations at the Maritime India Summit in Mumbai where a large number of US companies had evinced interest in promoting cooperation with India in the maritime sector.
More than 150 projects were identified under the ambitious Sagarmala Programme at the recent Maritime India summit in Mumbai.
India has 7,500 Kilometres-long coastline, 212 ports, 70 coastal districts, one Billion tonne cargo handling currently, 111 waterways and 90 per cent of export-import trade (by volume) handled at ports.
According to officials, Gadkari has envisaged USD 50-60 billion FDI for infrastructure and another USD 100 billion towards industrial development for port-led economic growth in the maritime sector and inland waterways, water transport, coastal and cruise shipping, solar and wind energy generation to further boost the country's growth momentum.
Gadkari's visit will focus on inviting US companies for technology cooperation in road and highway building, road engineering, innovations in automobile sector, road safety and green fuels.
The Overseas Friends of BJP will also host a reception for him in the city.
Gadkari will then leave for St Louis to understand Inland Waterways System on the Mississippi River.
In San Francisco, Gadkari will hold talks with senior officials from the California Transportation Agency, and departments of International Affairs and business development.
He will also visit manufacturer of quality electric cars Tesla and hold a meeting with investors and interact with TiE Charter members over dinner.
