Nitin Gadkari Aims To Cut Road Accident Deaths By 50% In Next 4 Years: Report

Nitin Gadkari, the Union Minister for Road Transport and Highways has announced his aim to cut down road accident-related deaths in India by half in the next four year. The minister spoke about the new roadmap for making our road safer while addressing a webinar hosted by the International Institute of Security & Safety Management (IISSM). Speaking at the event Gadkari said, "Every year over 1.5 lakh people die and 5 lakh are injured in the country in road accidents. By 2025, we plan to reduce the number of deaths to 50 per cent and to zero by 2030."

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Union Minister Nitin Gadkari said his roadmap also involves having road safety drives and creating awareness among drivers at the training school level

In his speech, the Union Minister pointed out that the Stockholm Declaration, which was adopted at the third global ministerial conference on road safety in Sweden, in February 2020, called for a reduction of road accidents by 50 per cent, by 2030. However, Gadkari's latest announcement tells us that India plans do that up to five years in advance. Gadkari has said that his ministry is focusing on several aspects like - engineering, effective implementation, training and strengthening of emergency services. Furthermore, he said, given the fact that MoRTH India has already amended the Motor Vehicles Act (MVA), 2019, it is now the responsibility of the Centre and states to follow the Act.

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Gadkari says that the death percentage of people between 18 to 45 years is 70 per cent right now

Among several other measures, Gadkari said that his roadmap also involves having road safety drives and creating awareness among drivers at the training school level. The minister also says that the country needs 22 lakh responsible drivers, and it has already started working towards that goal by setting up training centres. On the other hand, NGO Jan Akrosh is creating awareness drives on road safety. Pointing out the seriousness of the situation, Gadkari said that the death percentage of people between 18 to 45 years is 70 per cent right now, and in addition to ruining lives, on average they cost the countries 3.14 per cent of their GDP. "If we could stop this loss, the countries could save Rs 1 crore towards every person," Gadkari added.

Currently, an estimated 13.5 lakh people die each year due to road accidents related deaths. In addition to that, as many as 5 crore people are injured. Globally, right now road accidents are the eighth leading cause of deaths of people across all age groups, and the number one cause of death among children and youths aged between 5 and 29 years.

Source: ET Auto