Road safety scheme worth ₹7,270 crore to be rolled out in 14 states

The Ministry of Road Transport and Highways (MoRTH) will roll out a scheme worth RS 7,270 crore to enhance road safety in 14 states in order to help realise the vision of zero road fatalities on the country's roads. The six-year-old centrally-sponsored programme will be implemented in the states that contribute 85 per cent of the total road fatalities in the country.

Of the allocated value to the scheme, MoRTH will lend a budgetary support of ₹3,635 crore while an amount of ₹1,818 crore will be secured as loan each from the World Bank and the Asian Development Bank. Of the total cost, ₹6,725 crore will be disbursed to the 14 states based on their performance while MoRTH will use ₹545 crore for capacity building activities.

The target states for the road safety programme include Uttar Pradesh, Maharashtra, Madhya Pradesh, Karnataka, Rajasthan, Tamil Nadu, Andhra Pradesh, Gujarat, Bihar, Telangana, West Bengal, Odisha, Haryana and Assam. The scheme will help the state governments to carry out road safety interventions at the grassroots level with the objective of curbing road accidents and achieving a reduction in fatalities.

The programme is an output and outcome-driven scheme as the grants will be distributed to the states based on the Key Performance Indicators. The performance will be assessed on 11 mandatory and three elective indicators.

India reported about 1.51 lakh fatalities in 4.49 lakh road accidents in the year 2019. Of the total deaths, the 14 target states accounted for 1,27,379. The number of fatalities have remained consistent over the last five years. Last year, 1.32 lakh road fatalities took place across the country as the numbers fell due to the Covid-19-induced lockdown. 

The new road safety scheme aims to reduce the fatality rate in road accidents by 30 per cent by March 2027. Under the programme, an Integrated Road Accident Database (IRAD) will be rolled out in all states by 2022-23 and applied for identifying and rectifying all black spots on state highways and major district roads. Road safety audit will be made mandatory on state highways and urban roads by the end of the scheme period.

Further, MoRTH will launch a 'Challenge Round' every year, starting 2022-23, to provide incentives to states on additional road safety interventions and also to promote competition among states.

(with inputs from PTI)