Ministry sanctions Rs 700 crore as road deaths in 2015 touches nearly 1.5 lakh

17 lives are lost on Indian roads every hour, Pon. Radhakrishnan, Minister of State, Road Transport and Highways, told the Rajya Sabha on July 18.

He further said that the total number of lives lost on Indian roads in the year 2015 were 1, 46,133. This number, in 2013 and 2014 was 1, 37, 572 and 1, 39, 671, respectively.

Yet, the ministry said it has sanctioned a paltry Rs 600 crore for taking up road safety on national highways this year. It has also approved a budget of Rs 80 crore for implementing schemes that promote road safety. He told the Upper House, “Decision has been taken recently to earmark ten percent of such funds allocated to the State Governments /UTs for road safety works. The Ministry has fixed a sanction ceiling of Rs. 600 crore for taking up Road Safety works on NHs for the year 2016-17.”

As per the latest issue of the “World Road Statistics” (WRS) 2015, brought out by the International Road Federation, Geneva, the highest number of fatalities in road accidents in the world for the year 2013 was reported to be India (1,37,572), followed by United States (32,719) and Russian Federation (27,025) for the same year. 

Outlining the efforts taken by the ministry to reduce road death, the minister said, “High priority has been accorded to identification and rectification of black spots (accident prone spots) on national highways. Around 700 such black spots have been identified for improvement.”

He further said, “Launch of pilot projects for providing cashless treatment of road accident victims on Gurgaon – Jaipur, Vadodara – Mumbai stretch of National Highways No. 8 and Ranchi – Rargaon - Mahulia stretch of National Highway No. 33.”

Nitin Gadkari, Union Minister, Road Transport and Highways, has time and again stressed for need to make the highways and roads safer. In January this year, he said that the government will spend Rs 11,000 crore over the next five years to improve road infrastructure. 

He had further said that road accidents cause an annual loss of Rs 60,000 crore.