In the last 10 years, nearly 11.50 lakh people were killed and close to 50 lakh injured in accidents on Indian roads. The Planning Commission has over the years pegged the social cost of road accidents at whopping Rs 55,000 crore, which is “three per cent of the Gross Domestic Product (GDP)”.
The Government is yet to come out with the latest social cost of road accidents, but a senior official of the Road Ministry said: “It continues to be the highest in the world and is still estimated to be at 3 per cent of the GDP”. Statistics with the Ministry of Roads, Transport and Highways show that in the last decade — 2003 to 2012 — the official estimate of deaths on roads was a whopping 11,54,553 people, while 49,61,970 people were injured across the country.
“The Working Group on Road Accidents, Injury Prevention and Control set up by the Planning Commission had assessed the social cost of road accidents in India at Rs 55,000 crore, which is about 3 per cent of the GDP. This has been a worrying figure and we are putting in all efforts to bring down the numbers,” the official said. “Our Ministry has taken many measures to prevent road accidents and our latest figures also show a marginal decline. We are hopeful that with adequate measures we will be able to bring it down by 50 per cent in the next five years,” he said.
“The Ministry is already implementing a pilot project for the cashless treatment of victims of road accidents on the Gurgaon-Jaipur stretch of National Highway-8, which we want to extend to at least two more States this year itself. The project has shown promise and we are sure we will be able to replicate the model in the entire country under public private partnership,” said the official.
The project envisages deployment of ambulances to transport road accident victims on the identified hospitals along the stretch. The Ministry provides for cashless treatment for the first 48 hours or up to Rs 30,000, whichever is reached earlier. “The Ministry is also working in close co-ordination with various stakeholders to ensure that all safety measures are taken at the stage of road design, which happens at the planning stage,” said the official.
As a pilot project Delhi-NCR is taking a lead in introducing Highway Traffic Management System using Intelligent Transport System to ensure smooth flow of traffic, improve the process of penalising errant drivers and bringing down the number of accidents.