In a bid to reduce road fatalities, the Government of India is working on creating helipads on wayside amenities located at expressways, Gen (Dr) Retd VK Singh, Minister of State for Road Transport & Highways and Civil Aviation, Govt of India said while addressing a conference titled ‘Role of Corporates in Road Safety 2022’, organised by FICCI.
Adding international standards for airbags used in cars and placing ambulances at various highway tolls to provide emergency care are more such steps being taken by the government of the country to reduce the number of road accidents. Gen (Dr) Singh stated that currently the government has placed ambulances at each toll plazas on highways but there is still more which needs to be done in this area.
Notably, the government has issued guidelines to OEMs advising them to include six instead of two airbags in cars. OEMs have also been asked to follow safety guidelines as followed in many European and Western countries.
“This is one area where corporations play an important role to find more solutions so that we can save more lives. Eleven percent of world accidents happen in India and we need to work to bring down the number of road accidents to two lakh per year from the current five lakh. This can be rectified and brought down if all stakeholders work together,” he said.
The minister also emphasised on the need to create an ecosystem for safety, which includes the transport sector, drivers, driving schools, etc. Modern gadgets equipped at new-age driving schools, as per the Minister, will create more jobs and at the same time help drivers learn safe driving.
He stated, “We have mandated that good driving schools should come up in each state and especially in areas which are in the backward region. We are providing financial assistance in setting-up the schools and the effort is to reduce the number of road accidents.”
Corporates, as highlighted by GK Pillai, Advisor, FICCI Homeland Security Committee and Former Union Home Secretary, should adopt road safety as top of their agenda during the next six years. He said, “What we have realised in the last two years is that almost 50% of accidents can be avoided if there are good roads. Just good roads along with the safety features will reduce the fatalities.”
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