The government is committed to bring down the number of accidents and related fatalities in the country, said Nitin Gadkari, minister of road transport and highways.
Last week, the ministry released a report, ‘Road accidents in India 2015,’ which revealed that 1.46 lakh people were killed in 5 lakh road accidents in India last year. More than 5 lakh people were injured in the accidents and the number of persons killed per 100 accidents rose to 29.1 during the year.
According to Gadkari, 726 black spots have been identified and work is on to rectify these. About Rs.11,000 crore would be spent on this work. Crash barriers would also be installed in hilly terrains including in Himachal Pradesh, he said.
A group of ministers is working on recommendations to make Indian roads safer. This will pave the way for introducing a new Motor Vehicles Act in Parliament soon, said Gadkari.
According to him, 10 % of the CRF funds given to each state is to be used for identifying black spots on state and other highways. NGOs have also been roped in to create awareness about accidents.
Gadkari appealed to people to obey traffic rules and exercise utmost care and caution on the roads. He requested people not to drink and drive, and not to violate traffic rules.
Source : BS Motoring
