Gadkari for 'concrete' steps in SDGs for road safety

India should press for concrete measures in the proposed sustainable development goals (SDG) by the United Nations with an aim to halving the number of deaths in road accidents, Road, Transport and Highways Minister Nitin Gadkari has said.
In a letter to External Affairs Minister Sushma Swaraj, Gadkari has said that India's representatives in UN should further elaborate and include concrete actions in the proposed SDG to achieve the objective of halving road deaths by year 2020 especially developing countries, International Road Federation (IRF) said in a statement.
"Out of global 1.24 million deaths due to road accidents, India accounts for about 1,50,000 deaths, the highest in the world, resulting in economic loss of Rs one lakh crore per annum. Deeply concerned with increasing number of road accident fatalities UN launched Decade of Action for Road Safety with target of reducing road crash deaths by 50 per cent by the year 2020.

"India as member country is committed to this target. Ministry of Road Transport in India is taking all steps to increase road safety on Highways," the IRF statement quoted Gadkari as saying.
Gadkari said that concrete actions would help drive the political system and the civil society in the respective countries towards curbing road accident deaths
It said the United Nations has drafted 17 universal set of goals ,targets and indicators termed as SDGs expected to be used for framing agenda and political policies for next 15 years by the member states including India.
The final SDGs are scheduled to be presented to the UN member states during the upcoming general assembly later this month.

"The proposed new road safety target has been included in Goal 3 of the SDG by UN. It has been titled 'Ensure Health Lives and Promote Well being for all at all ages' with stand alone health goal targetting halving the number of global deaths and injuries from road traffic accidents by year 2020," the statement said.