Govt plans to keep 1% of highways project cost for road safety

The government plans to make it mandatory to set aside 1 percent of total cost of any highway project for road safety, Union Minister Nitin Gadkari said.

India witnesses as high as 5 lakh road accidents per annum in which 1.5 lakh people die and another 3 lakh are crippled.

"We have prepared a policy for setting aside one percent of the total project cost of any highway project for road safety issues. Government is likely to approve it soon," Road Transport and Highways Minister Gadkari told PTI.

"If cost of construction is Rs 1,000 crore then one percent comes to Rs 10 crore. We will use those Rs 10 crore for road safety issues that include fixing accidental spots, installing cameras and lights and on other such issues," the minister said.

The government is committed to reducing the number of road accidents and fatalities by 50 percent in next two to three years.

He said road accidents cause an annual loss equivalent to 3 percent of the GDP.

Among other measures to check accidents, the minister said a Group of Ministers (GoM) headed by Yunus Khan, Minister for Transport, Rajasthan and comprising state transport ministers will decide on penalties for driving by minors, drunken driving etc.

The GoM which is scheduled to meet here on April 29 will deliberate on all aspects and will propose penalties for such offences and subsequently a wider consultation will be done.

The new road safety bill could not be introduced in Parliament due to opposition from some states who said the proposed law encroached on their financial rights.

In order to address these concerns as also to bring in a stricter road safety regime, a meeting of state transport secretaries and stakeholders was held here on April 22 to provide inputs for the April 29 meeting.

A final decision on the new safety bill will be taken in the meeting and based on that, consent from states will be sought as the issue falls under concurrent list.

Gadkari had recently said that different lobbies were opposing the Road Transport and Safety Bill, 2015.

The bill seeks to come down heavily on traffic offenders and proposes steep penalties of up to Rs 3 lakh along with a minimum 7-year imprisonment for death of a child in certain circumstances, besides huge fines for driving violations.

As a signatory to Brasilia Declaration, India has expressed its commitment to reduce the number of road accidents and fatalities by 50 percent by 2020.