As part of its ongoing efforts to improve road safety in the country and facilitate ease of transport, Ministry of Road Transport and Highways has convened a meeting of State Governments to deliberate on various issues in this regard which need to be addressed urgently.
The deliberations will focus on what needs to be done to make road travel safer, bring down number of accidents, facilitate ease of transport and enhance customer experience in transactions with transport and police departments.
All Principal Transport Secretaries of States and Transport Commissioners have been called on April 29 which is part of the meeting of the scheduled Group of Ministers (GoM). The GoM headed by Rajasthan Transport Minister Yunus Khan was formed by Central Government to suggest a road map for reforming the road sector.
Safety of non-motorised vehicles, pedestrians, automobile safety features, quality control over automobiles, issue of driving licences, fitness of vehicles, public education, strengthening of traffic enforcement, enhancing customer experience in transaction with transport and police department are some of the significant issues to be taken up for discussion, said a road ministry official.
In this regard a meeting of all stakeholders like representatives of motor transport companies, state road transport undertakings and bus operators among others were called on Friday so that all areas of concern could be discussed. Secretary Road Transport Sanjay Mitra reiterated his Ministry's commitment to facilitate building of a cogent mechanism for safe and seamless road travel in the country.
"As a signatory to Brasilia Declaration, India is committed to reducing the number of road accidents and fatalities by 50 per cent by 2020. We need urgent reforms to weed out archaic rules so that the road sector can support the high growth rates of the Indian economy. We need to amend the Motor Vehicles Act and make optimal use of technology to cut down delays," said Transport Ministry official.