Road Safety Week begins

Updated on : 12-01-2016 07:47 AM

Road safety week launched in Delhi to make roads safer. A massive 60,000 crore rupees estimated to be lost in road accidents each year. The Govt will spend 11,000 crore rupees for the next 5 years to improve road infrastructure.

To make roads safer, the govt launched a road safety week in the national capital on Monday. Transport Minister Nitin Gadkari, Home Minister Rajnath Singh, Science and Tech Minister Dr Harsh Vardhan and cricket Gautam Gambhir were among those who were part of the event.  India is among the nations where fatalities are highest in road accidents. Delhi alone witnessed over 1,500 deaths on its roads during 2015.  Government is taking multiple steps to ensure road safety. A week long awareness campaign regarding road safety was kicked off with a walkathon that was flagged off from the India Gate.  Road accidents cause an annual loss of around Rs 60,000 crore, or 3 per cent of the GDP, to the country. Speaking on the occasion Home minister Rajnath singh called upon all stakeholders to play effective role in ensuring safety on roads. Expressing concern that about 1.4 lakh people lose their lives in road crashes, Singh said that there is a need for proper training of drivers before they are issued driving licenses.  Science and technology minister Dr. Harsh Vardhan emphasized on a policy on design of speed breakers and making it complusory to fasten seat belts, for all co passengers beside the driver. He mentioned former Union minister Gopinath Mundey and formenr Chief MInister Of Delhi Sahib singh Verma lost their lives in road accidents.  Road transport Minster Nitin Gadkari also held a talkathon on road safety detailing governments initiatives in road safety.  And the govt is now focusing on black spots in the country's roads where fatal road accidents take place the most.  Treating black spots with road engineering interventions has been identified as one of the priorities by the Union government to reduce road fatalities. Rs. 11,000 Crore has been earmarked in the next five years to fix such spots across the country.  The national capital will be the first city to get a share of the Central Road Fund to fix 10 "black spots", which claimed 84 lives in 2014.  Accident black-spots are defined as road locations with relatively high accident potential or locations having higher concentration of road accidents.  The Central Road fund will now allot finances to deal with such black-spots. The Centre has launched a website where people can share information about Black-spots and improving the road engineering, construction of flyover and underpasses.  While the blame of road crashes are usually put on the drivers, lately the government has started accepting how bad road engineering and design are equally responsible for crashes.  The national capital witnessed more than 1500 deaths in road accidents in last year only. It has identified and started work on ten major accident black spots in Delhi. These include- Sarai Kale Khan, Kashmere Gate chowk (Morigate), Nigam Bodh Ghat, Mukundpur Chowk, Dr Bhahbha Marg crossing, Punjabi Bagh Chowk, ISBT Kashmere Gate, Mahipalpur Flyover, Shani Mandir and Shahdara Flyover.  Mukundpur Chowk alone recorded 11 fatalities and 12 injuries in only 18 road crashes  Apart from constructing safer roads, govt is also focusing on manufacture of safer cars. No car will be built without airbag and trucks cabin will require mandatory air-conditioned fittings.The Road transport minister also expressed hope that Parliament will soon pass the Road Transport and Safety Bill which has a number of steps to minimise road accidents.