According to a World Bank Report released in 2021, India fared well in the tally of nations recording maximum deaths due to road accidents. As per the report, India accounted for 11% of the global death in road accidents, which is the highest in the world.
A similar message of India's situation in terms of road accidents was received when Union Minister shed light upon the official data on road accidents in India. In the event, he said that every year, some 5 lakh road accidents kill 1.5 lakh people and injure over 3 lakh. Acknowledging the situation, he further presented the government's plan to reduce accidents and deaths by 50 percent by the end of 2024.
"To achieve this target, the Union government has spent ₹25,000 crore so far to remove black spots (sites where multiple accidents have taken place) on highways. With the help of World Bank and Asian Development Bank (ADB), the government is also working on other projects worth ₹15,000 crore," he said.
The funds under these schemes will also be allocated to state governments for ensuring an efficient and effective black spot rectification by them.
As per the Ministry of Road and Transport, a road accident black spot is a 500 m long stretch of National Highway in which either five road accidents took place in the last three years or 10 fatalities took place under the same duration.
The Indian car market used to be a lucrative site for car manufacturers whose products don't perform well in global safety check standards. However, recent laws are a progressive step to changing the scenario. Highlighting another similar scheme to raise safety check standards of cars in India, Nitin Gadkari, talked about the 'Bharat New Car Assessment Program', under which vehicles will get star ratings after they are subjected to safety checks of world standards. Before introducing any vehicle in the market, crash tests will have to be carried out as per these standards mandatorily, he said.
Asking youth to religiously follow traffic rules, Gadkari said, "Our biggest problem is we don't have respect or fear for traffic rules. People are not bothered about following rules, which results in road accident deaths." He also said film legend Amitabh Bachchan had assured him he would spread awareness among people on road safety.
With inputs from PTI
