Road accidents down 10% after hike in fine: Gadkari

Vibha Sharma

Tribune News Service

New Delhi, March 19

The number of road accidents in the country has gone down by an average 10 per cent (in Chandigarh by 15 per cent) since the implementation of the new Motor Vehicles Act and a steep increase in fines, according to Road Transport and Highways Minister Nitin Gadkari.

He informed the Lok Sabha today that killer/black spots have now increased to 5,000 for which the government has made a Rs 14,000-crore plan.

This was in response to a supplementary by Sangrur MP Bhagwant Mann who referred to a road accident involving late satirist Jaspal Bhatti in 2012 to draw Gadkari’s attention to killer/black spots on roads of Punjab. Stating that Punjab was among the states with high number of accidents, Mann said after his accident, the Punjab government “identified 138 killer/black spots about which it did nothing.”

“Can you please take cognisance of these killer roads and spots with the history of accidents,” Mann urged Gadkari.

Gadkari said blacks spots identified on NHAI roads have increased from 786 to 5,000, which include state and other roads for which a Rs 14000-crore plan has been made. While the government will contribute Rs 7,000 crore, the remaining will come from World Bank and the ADB, he said.

Referring to the safety situation since the implementation of the new Act in 2019, Gadkari said most states, except Assam and Kerala, saw a decline in number of accidents.

In Chandigarh and Jammu and Kashmir, the number of accidents decreased by 15%, in Gujarat by 14%, in Uttar Pradesh by 13%, in Haryana 1% and Delhi 2%, Gadkari said. Lives of almost 15,000 persons have been saved since the implementation of the Act, he added.

Notably, the number of persons killed in road accidents increased from 1,47,913 in 2017 to 1,51,417 in 2018, as per the data submitted by him in the Lok Sabha, Punjab registered an increase from 4,463 in 2017 to 4,740 in 2018; neighbouring Haryana almost maintained a status quo with 5,120 deaths in 2017 and 5,118 deaths in 2018 while their capital Chandigarh saw a decline from 107 in 2017 to 98 in 2018.

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