Nitin Gadkari lists his ministry's 'biggest failure' in last 5 years

Union Road Transport and Highways Minister Nitin Gadkari has admitted that his ministry's inability to reduce number of road accidents and deaths across the country has been one of the biggest failures in last five years.

Speaking at the Mint Idea Investment Summit and Awards in Mumbai on Thursday, Gadkari said that despite a minor dip in numbers, the situation remains grim.

India ranks right on top when it comes to the number of road accident deaths across 199 countries reported in the World Road Statistics, 2018 followed by China and US. As per the WHO Global Report on Road Safety 2018, India alone accounts for almost 11% of deaths due to accidents across the world.

Gadkari said, “Presently the situation is very bad. We are facing 5 lakh accidents and 1.5 lakh deaths (every year). For the first time, in the last 3 months, the percentage of accidents and deaths have decreased. Everything is very good in my department. But one of the great failures, in the last 5 years, is that we failed in reducing number of accidents and deaths. We are losing 2% of our GDP because of these accidents."