Nitin Gadkari asks for fixed driving hours for trucks, sleep detection system

At the recently held National Road Safety Council (NRSC) meeting, union minister Nitin Gadkari emphasizedon the need to have fixed driving hours for commercial trucks in order to mitigate fatigue-induced road accidents.

He also highlighted the need to have on-board sleep detection sensors in commercial vehicles. In a series of tweets, the minister wrote, "Have directed officers to work on a policy to include on-board sleep detection sensors in commercial vehicles, at par with European standards."

During the introductory meeting of new members nominated to the NRSC, Gadkari advised all the members to work in diversified areas of road safety so that more and more lives can be saved on road. He also directed the officials of road transport ministry to work in close coordination with NRSC members and implement their suggestions on priority.

The minister will write letters to chief ministers and district collectors in order to ensure that meetings for the district road committee are held regularly. He has directed the council to meet every two months and share their updates on the ongoing work towards enhancing road safety.

It was also revealed in the meeting that a monthly magazine will be published to highlight all the achievements made in the areas of road safety. The new NRSC was formed by the transport ministry on July 28 while the meeting was held on Tuesday. It was attended by all the 13 non-official co-opted individual members as well as Minister of State for Road Transport and Highways, General V K Singh.

Gadkari has time and again highlighted the need for road safety as well as safety equipment in vehicles of all kinds. He has assured that road accident cases in the country will go down by about 50 per cent in the next three years by improving quality of roads as well as safety measures.