Transport Ministry raises maximum speed limit for vehicles on urban roads

In a first, central government has pushed the maximum speed limits on urban roads for cars at 70 km per hour, 60 km per hour for cargo carriers and 50 km per hour for two-wheelers, according to a report in The Times of India.

State government or local bodies are free to decide, however, if the speed limit needs to be reduced in any category to ensure the safety of the citizens.

Local authorities have, at present, kept the urban speed limits in the bracket of 40-50 km per hour, but sources told the paper that the rising number of ring roads and big arterial stretches in the urban areas made the ministry push the speed limit higher.

The national maximum speed limit for different categories set by the road transport ministry had been very vague and created confusion regarding speed limits on different types of roads, and the local authorities had also not specified the speed limit for such roads.

The report quoted an official saying, “Since the state and its agencies have full authority to reduce the limit, they can now decide on which stretches they can allow vehicles to ply at the limit set by the Centre.”

On Wednesday, Nitin Gadkari, road and transport minister, gave a green light to the proposal capping speed limit for all types of vehicles on four categories of roads across the country.

A committee headed by Abhay Damle, joint secretary transport, had recently suggested higher speed limits for cars on expressways and for buses on highways. In February this year, the ministry approved maximum speed limit for cars on expressways at 120 km per hour.

The decision will be notified soon; it says that the drivers are not in the wrong as long as they are driving within 5 percent of the maximum speed limit.