Centre-World Bank join hands to capture real-time road accident data

Moneycontrol News 

The government and the World Bank have joined hands to provide real-time road accident data to various authorities. The idea is to capture exact number of road accidents and their causes.

According to a report by The Times Of India, Centre will take financial and technical assistance from the WB to develop an IT cell. The cell would collect data using a mobile app under "Integrated Road Accident Database" project.

The newspaper quoted sources who said that Centre would "soon engage an expert entity" to steer through the entire process.

"The scope of work will include providing and implementing a GIS-based computerised software which will be compatible with mobile phone operating system for recording, storing and analysing details of the accident," the daily said.

India sees a road accident every 3.5 minutes. The causes, according to government analysis, range from mobile usage to over-speeding. Last year, over 4,70,000 people met with road accidents.

The idea, for the step, is to capture details of the accident to help various agencies, including police, state PWD, National Highways Authority of India (NHAI) and others, study the incident from "investigation, road engineering, vehicle condition and driving licence validity" point of view.

"The details, so entered, shall enable various authorities and research institutes to run different type of analysis and understand the dynamics of road accidents in India and take targeted measures in terms of enforcement, road design, etc to improve road safety in India," the bid document to appoint expert entity said.

The daily also said that the government would set up a centralised Accident Data Management Cell (ADMC) to store data of all the states.

"There will be provisioning for developing artificial intelligence for predictive modeling system for road accidents and analysis of the same for prioritisation ob measures to promote road safety," the newspaper quoted an official.