Sunday’s accidents on two highways — the Mumbai-Goa highway (NH-17) and the Mumbai-Pune expressway — which witness heavy traffic round the year, have once again put the spotlight back on killer roads and the need to expedite strengthening of the four ‘Es’ of road safety: enforcement, emergency care, engineering (vehicles and roads) and education.
Recently, individual reports of five working groups on the strengthening of the ‘Es’ of road safety were put up in public domain by the ministry of road transport and highways. If implemented soon — and in the right spirit — the recommendations of the working groups will go a long way in reducing the number of accidents and loss of life on the country’s roads, which witness the highest number of fatal accidents in the world.
Breaking down the complex issue of road safety into four components, the National Road Safety Council — India’s apex policy-making body on road safety — had in March last year set up five working groups to study the existing problems in ensuring safety on roads and by considering all aspects, recommend solutions for improving the situation. The finalised reports were received by the ministry in late 2011 and released on its website for comments from the public a week ago.
A senior ministry official said, “Presently, we are in the process of finalising a consolidated report of all individual reports given by the working groups so that it could be prepared and sent to members of the National Road Safety Council before their annual meeting in March.”
The recommendations seek to put in place progressive norms to help make roads less dangerous. Case in point: the suggestion made by the group working on enforcement on revising fines based on the consumer price index every three years for breaking traffic norms. This was suggested after noting that the penalty structure in the Motor Vehicles Act, 1988, has become redundant due to rise in inflation and the average national income, and that Rs100 did not have the same value in 2011 as it did in 1988, when the Act was introduced.
The official said, “Many of the recommendations have already been taken on board by the Sunder committee, which was set up to recommend amendments to the Motor Vehicles Act as well as in 12th five-year proposals, which have been sent to the Planning Commission. So, there is some real forward movement being made, but the final approvals will have to go through the mandatory procedures for a smoother implementation. We will also consult the state and union territories.”
SK Sharma, Maharashtra principal secretary (transport), said the state is keen on taking any progressive measure that will improve road safety. “Road safety is one of the top-most issues on the agenda of most governments today, considering the rising toll of accidents and deaths. We are yet to receive the recommendations, but once we do, our response to them will be swift and helpful as far as implementation is concerned,” he assured.
Santa Cruz resident Sameer Buddha, who commutes every day to Andheri in his car, believes the recommendations have “hit the nail on the head”. “An increase in fines, a national helpline number for accident victims and CCTV monitoring are the need of the hour in Mumbai.”
So, in the UN’s Decade of Action for Road Safety, will India be able to shed the tag of being the road death capital of the world? The jury is still out.
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