With a person dying every four-and-a-half minutes in road accidents in the country, the government today said it will tighten safety rules to bring them in line with international standards.
The government will also finalise draft amendments to the Motor Vehicles Act within a month.
"There is a road accident taking place in India every minute, and a road accident death every four-and-a-half minutes. This is not acceptable," Transport Minister Kamal Nath said at the inauguration of the 10th Auto Expo here.
"We will align our rules for road safety with international standards," he added.
Nath also said the review of the Motor Vehicles Act 1988, which among other things defines speed limits, is going on.
"We will make public within a month the draft amendments to the act and will invite comments from stakeholders," he said.
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On the need to build new roads and highways, Nath said, "There is infrastructure deficit in the country and we are committed to bridging this deficit. At the heart of the infrastructure deficit is the roads and the highways sector."
He said in order to meet the target of building 7,000 km of roads a year (about 20 km a day) the work-in-progress needs to be 20,000 km, which translates into Rs 2 lakh crore worth of funding.
Heavy Industries Minister Vilasrao Deshmukh said the government is committed to creating a world class infrastructure for the automobile sector.
He said the ministry has taken several initiatives in this direction that includes setting up of technology development fund for auto component sector, adoption of new cleaner sustainable automobile technology and setting up of automotive design facility.
"In addition my ministry is also keen in promoting interactive linkages between the developing industry and global auto industry...," Deshmukh said.