National road safety: Govt to set up advisory body

The Department of Expenditure of the Ministry of Finance has approved the setting up of an advisory road safety board as a part of the Motor Vehicles (Amendment) Bill 2019. The road safety board will comprise a seven-member panel that will advise the government on matters related to road safety and other safety measures. The members will have experience in the field relating to traffic regulation, road safety, civil engineering, urban planning, policy enforcement and investigation. Additionally, the board would also have a technical committee, which would have a look at varied aspects of road safety, starting from civil engineering to vehicle construction, safety equipment and more. Apart from rapid expansion and upgradation of the road network, the advisory board would look into varied aspects of enforcement of high safety standards for vehicles. And the government's next move would be to actively take a keen interest in the safety of the roads. At an Autocar Awards show, Minister of Road Transport and Highways, Nitin Gadkari highlighted the need to identify black spots in road construction. Gadkari said that the government has already improved around 5,000 to 6,000 black spots. A Rs 14,000 crore scheme has already been submitted to the World Bank and Asian Development Bank (ADB) to improve black spots on the roads, especially for state highways, district roads and corporation roads, said Gadkari. The new safety board's role would be to become an advisory body to the government and, from time to time, offer advice on creating policies and matters or standards relating to road safety, road construction in hilly areas, vehicle design standards, among others. Image source Also read: IRF asks MoRD to implement safer engineering on rural roads Also read: Nitin Gadkari launches road safety data dashboard for Gurugram