Minister for Road Transport and Highways Nitin Gadkari on Monday urged the auto industry to invest in driver training centres to help improve road safety in the country as well as to address the issue of driver shortage.
“This is the most important problem where we need your cooperation. We require automobile manufacturers to open driver training centres and offer courses. The Ministry of Skill Development will certify you so that you can train people,” the Minister said at a Confederation of Indian Industry’s national conclave on road safety.
Mr. Gadkari said that there was a shortage of 22 lakh drivers in the country, and many drivers learned driving informally. “The present system is that cleaners learn driving from the truck driver. But they need to be trained in safety aspects,” he explained.
He also sought to draw the industry’s attention towards the need for medical emergency services for road crash victims.
Secretary, Ministry of Road Transport and Highways, Anurag Jain, said that from next month, the integrated road accident database (iRAD) would receive crash details from the police department on a monthly basis to enable road engineers to inspect accident sites and carry out rectification work. The iRAD mobile application enables police personnel to enter details about a road accident, following which a unique ID will be created for the incident. Subsequently, an engineer from the Public Works Department or the local body will receive an alert on his mobile device. He or she will then visit the accident site, examine it and enter details such as the road design. Data thus collected will be analysed by a team at IIT-Madras, which will suggest if corrective measures in road design need to be taken.
He said that while the government was already discussing implementation of Advance Driver Assistance System (such as lane departure warning, blind spot information systems) in vehicles, the Ministry would soon publish the final Code of Practice of Bus Body Approval so that bus body builders were no longer exempted from safety standards that apply to original equipment manufacturers. He said the Code would be mandatory 18 months from the date of notification.
