NEW DELHI, Jan 14:
With the country registering around five lakh road accidents annually out of which 1.5 lakh are fatal, Minister of Road Transport and Highways Nitin Gadkari today said the priority of the Government is to bring down these accidents to 50 per cent in the next five years. He also urged the concerned stakeholders and NGOs to walk along with the Government in addressing this crucial problem.
Addressing a seminar – Road Safety Forum – 2016 with NGOs here, as a part of the Road Safety Week, Mr Gadkari said, “In the next five years the Government wants to bring down the accident level to 50 per cent, which is challenging.”
The Government has identified 726 ‘black spots’ across the country on the National Highways where maximum number of accidents take place for which the government has earmarked Rs 11,000 crore that would used to rectify these in the spots in the next five year, he added. The Minister also urged the state governments to identify such accident spots in their district and municipal corporation roads and rectify them.
Mr Gadkari said the need of the hour was to make road safety campaign a public one and he would be talking to the Railway Ministry to run a special train with messages about road safety.
He said with this special train travelling across the country, public mainly school and college students would benefit, adding that the Government was also planning to construct around 1,200 roadside amenities including, trauma centres at major busy corridors and helipad so that serious accident victims could be airlifted.
Showing concern over the way driving licences were being issued, Mr Gadkari said 30 per cent of licences in the country were bogus and to make the licence system tough and to check and weed out multiple licences, computerised system would be introduced across the country.
Mr Gadkari also urged religious groups, NGOs, social activists, volunteers of NCC and NSS to raise awareness about road safety and work along with the Government in addressing this crucial problem.
Secretary, Minister of Road Transport & Highways Sanjay Mitra said people need to change their behaviour and with by adhering to simple rules accidents could be avoided. (UNI)
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