Gadkari hopeful of Road Saftey Bill passage in Budget session

Road and Highways Minister Nitin Gadkari expressed hope that the Road Transport and Safety Bill 2015 would be passed in the Budget session itself. "The Road Safety Bill is very important for me. Since motor vehicle laws fall in the Concurrent List, we need the approval of the states and many are already cooperating with us. We need political support for this Bill in the interest of the people. I believe we will be able to pass it the next Parliament session," Gadkari said. Addressing the India Road Safety week organised by NDTV and United Spirits this evening, the minister said the Bill has been prepared in consultations with experts from Britain, the US, Japan, Germany and Singapore and therefore we are hopeful the Bill will pass the Parliamentary muster.

Noting that India accounts for over 12 percent of the worldwide annual road fatalities of 12.4 million, he said and one the leading reasons for this is drunk driving. "This is really alarming and we need to take immediate steps to ensure safety of our citizens," Gadkari said. He said his ministry has decided to identify black spots or accident-prone areas on the national highways and develop them to reduce such incidents.

"In the first phase we have identified 726 spots on the NHs and we have decided to spend Rs 11,000 crore to improve these areas. Through this initiative I want to reduce the number of accidents by at least 50 percent," he added. Gadkari further said he will approach the Finance ministry to get financial assistance to states and local bodies for taking up such projects.

"I am responsible for national highways. But we have many such highly accident-prone spots on state and local roads. I have approached the Finance ministry to pursue if financial support to the tune of 50 percent of the total cost can be provided to the states and local bodies who will take up such projects," he said.

Gadkari further said his ministry has decided to provide road safety amenities across 1,200 spots on NHs to ensure immediate help in case of accidents. "We have identified 1,200 spots where trauma centres will be created with various amenities that will provide necessary assistance in case of accidents. We are also appealing to private sector to take up this responsibility.

We will provide them around 15,000 sqft area at Re 1 lease rentals for setting up such centres," he said. The Minister further said he has proposed to the government to set a separate ministry for road transport and create a road safety authority.