The highways ministry has decided to penalise contractors if more than one accident happens in a year on a particular stretch of National Highways (NH), built under the Build-Operate-Transfer (BOT) model, a senior government official said on Sunday.
Road Transport and Highways Secretary V Umashankar said the highways ministry has revised the BOT document, and now contractors will have to undertake crash management and take corrective steps if more than one accident happens in a particular period on a highway stretch built by them.
"If more than one accident happens in a particular stretch, say 500 meters, then the contractor will face a penalty of `25 lakh. Penalty will increase to `50 lakh if an accident happens next year," he added.
Umashankar said the highways ministry has identified 3,500 accident-prone stretches. He added that the Government will soon formally launch a cashless treatment scheme for road accident victims across India after making suitable modifications in the scheme by incorporating technical and project learning during the pilot project.
Road accident victims will be entitled to cashless treatment of up to `1.5 lakh for the first seven days at designated hospitals, the Ministry of Road Transport and Highways (MoRTH) had said in a notification issued in May this year.