Govt to join hands with private players to reduce road accidents

The Indian government plans to work with private players in an attempt to decrease road accidents in the country as well as to improve road safety. Nitin Gadkari, Minister for Road Transport and Highways, recently told the media that the public-private collaboration along with constant efforts would help in improving road safety and reducing road accidents in India. Gadkari called upon the private sector to create social consciousness, social responsibility and social awareness towards road safety while addressing a webinar on private financing for road safety. Apart from that, Gadkari also requested them to use their corporate social responsibility (CSR) fund to address all road safety concerns in the country. Further, the minister repeated the commitment to achieve a 50% decrease in road accident deaths by the year 2025 and also zero accident-related fatalities in India by 2030. As indicated by Gadkari, road accidents put a social-economic burden on society and, as a whole, on the country. He urged all the private sector entities to come forward for the development of social bonds proactively. Gadkari told the media that the corpus generated with social contribution would be utilised effectively to fund projects like zero fatality and other road safety strategies on a national scale. In the meantime, Gadkari informed in a written reply in the Rajya Sabha that the system of ETC using passive RFID technology was implemented based on Pan India to make tolling efficient and ensure seamless traffic movement. The government declared all lanes of toll plazas on NHs as FASTag lanes of the fee plaza with effect from midnight of February 15/16, 2021, to promote the payment of fees through digital mode and also to provide for seamless passage through toll plazas. Image Source Also read: Mumbai-Pune zero fatality corridor reduces accidents by 52%