Nitin Gadkari postpones target to reduce road accidents in India by half

Union Minister Nitin Gadkari has pushed back his ministry's target to reduce road accidents in India to half. The minister, while addressing a gathering on Monday, said he aims to achieve the target by 2030. Earlier, Gadkari had projected his ministry will be able to bring down number of accidents to the same level by next year. It is one of the aspects Gadkari admitted as the biggest failure of the ministry under his tenure. India recorded more than 4.61 lakh accidents in 2022 in which more than 1.68 lakh people had died.

India ranks among the top countries when it comes to number of road accidents and fatalities across the world. Gadkari had earlier attributed faulty road designs, driver behaviour among some of the key reasons why India witnesses high number of road accidents and deaths every year. Over the past few years, the Ministry of Road Transport and Highways undertook several initiatives, including identifying black spots on highways across the country, to minimise road accidents. However, the efforts failed to make an impact so far.

Gadkari made the statement while releasing a report called Road Safety Good Practices in India, which is prepared by SaveLIFE Foundation. He said, “We have set a latest target to reduce the number of road accidents and the resulting deaths in the country by half by 2030." According to a report released by his ministry, the number of road accidents have increased by 12 per cent last year. During this period India saw 53 road accidents in an hour on an average and around 19 deaths. The number of fatalities have also increased by more than nine per cent over the previous year.

Overspeeding remains the biggest killer on Indian roads. This has caused nearly 75 per cent of the accidents that have taken place in 2022. Wrong-side driving is also one of the biggest reasons behind increasing cases of road mishaps, contributing about six per cent. Drunken driving and usage of phones while driving are the two other big reasons, contributing more than four per cent of road accidents in India.