Concerned over alarmingly high number of road accidents in the country which causes an annual loss of Rs 60,000 crore, the Centre on Monday announced that it would spend Rs 11,000 crore to refurbish road infrastructure across the country during the next five years as one of the initiated steps aimed at minimising such mishaps.
Road Transport Minister Nitin Gadkari said the Government is committed to make National Highways accident-proof and has taken a number of steps to improve the situation, including launch of a website where people can inform about such spots and improving the road engineering, construction of flyover and underpasses, etc.
Marking the start of the Road Safety Week, Gadkari said the Government has identified and started work on 10 major accident black spots in Delhi. He said that road accidents cause an annual loss of around Rs 60,000 crore, or three per cent of the GDP, to the country.
Home Minister Rajnath Singh, who along with Gadkari launched a Walkathon earlier in the day, said that a life is lost every four minutes in road accidents and stressed on the need for a National Road Safety Authority. Minister for Science and Technology Harsh Vardhan, who was also present on this occasion, stressed on the need to make fastening of belts mandatory for people in the back seat of vehicles. Cricketer Gautam Gambhir also urged people to follow traffic rules to reduce road accidents.
“In a year five lakh accidents take place in the country, of which 1.5 lakh people die and another 3 lakh are crippled for life. So many people do not even die in wars. This is a serious concern,” Gadkari said.
“The government will spend Rs 11,000 crore in the next five years to improve the situation and work will soon start in correcting problems related to 10 identified black spots in Delhi,” he added. The ten black spots identified, 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. Black Spots are locations having higher concentration of road accidents.
Terming it unfortunate that about 30 per cent of driving licences were “bogus” in the country, he said that the system for grant of licence would be made electronic. On safety measures in vehicles, he said that “no car will be built without airbag and trucks cabin will require mandatory air-conditioned fittings”.