Vikrant Shekhawat : Jun 18, 2021, 01:22 PM
New Delhi: Minister for road transport and highways and micro, small and medium enterprises, Nitin Gadkari on Thursday said that the Centre's target is to reduce road accident deaths by 50 per cent by the year 2024.Addressing a virtual session on 'Role of Corporates in Arresting Road Fatalities' organised by the Federation of Indian Chambers of Commerce and Industry (FICCI), Gadkari congratulated the corporate body on the announcement of Road Safety consortium 'Safar', based on the safe system approach and release of a white paper on road safety for the corporate world.The minister also emphasised the need for identification of 'black spot' in every state, district and city, and said that the World Bank and ADB have already sanctioned a scheme by which the Centre is allocating ₹14,000 crores for states, National Highways Authority of India and other stakeholders to remove black spots.The minister said that his ministry is striving hard to reduce road accident deaths by restructuring and strengthening four 'E's of road safety--Engineering (including road and automobile engineering), Economy, Enforcement and Education."The corporate world should carry out the independent surveys to identify the reasons behind the accidents and a report may be submitted to the NHAI," he suggested.The minister further pointed out that 50 per cent of the road accidents are due to road engineering problems and now the government has taken special initiatives to improve the black spot."This will greatly contribute towards the vision of 'zero road accident' in India. The cooperation of NGOs, social organisations, universities is needed for education and awareness," he said and announced that an independent road safety council, headed by a retired IAS officer would come into force within 15 days.