56 ROAD SAFETY

The Decade of Action for Road Safety aims to cut road deaths worldwide by 500/0. India has risen to the challenge with various government initiatives already in place or being planned to improve the country's terrible road safety record
Words

I Arnaud Renard

Although India has only 10'0 of the world's motor vehicles, it is responsible for around 10"'0 of the world's road fatalities, With deaths forecast to reach 200,000 annually by 2015, the country will be a major focus in the Decade ofAction for Road Safety 20112020 (DARS) initiative, which was launched by the World Health Organisation (WHO) on 11 May. The goal of the global scheme is to cut the expected 2020 total of road deaths by 500'0 - to fewer than one million a year Efforts in India will be backed by the Ministry of Health, Joint Commissioners of Traffic Police the Ministry of Surface Transport, the National Highway Authority of India (NHAl), the India Council of Medical Research and WHO centres, India has a long list of road safety problems that the initiative will look to address A WHO report identified poor

road infrastructure, failure to comply with speed limits, the tendency to drink and drive, and non-use of motorcycle helmets and childseats as the main reasons for the country's alarmingly high fatality figures, Funding for DARS initiatives will be sourced from around the globe through campaigns such as the Commission for Global Road Safety (CGRS), which has appealed to the automotive industry to contribute US$2 per vehicle to the fund, Large corporations such as Allianz, Bosch, Michelin and Renault have already pledged to contribute big sums - at least US$150.000 per year - and as a result can use the new Decade ofAction for Road Safety yellow tag' on their publicity materials, Four road safety groups will be drawn up to submit a report on India's current road safety measures, The State Road Safety Council (SRSC) , which was originally set up

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ROAD SAFETY 57

In 2005, more than 40% of the children who died in a road traffic crash were pedestrians hit by a car or a heavy vehicle

The Indian government has a budget estimation of Rs 22,500 lakh to be spent on road safety In 2011-12. One of the schemes being funded is driVing training, which has come under particular scrutiny. The government has proposed setting up 10 modern driving training schools. The Ministry of Road Transport and Highways scheme will also offer 100% financial assistance for setting up the model institutes - known as Institutes of Driving Training and Research (IDTR). The initiative was born out of a ministry report published in 2009 that showed 78% of fatalities are due to driver error. Seven IDTRs have been sanctioned so far at a cost of Rs 140 crore in Himachal Pradesh, Madhya Pradesh, Rajasthan, Maharashtra, Gujarat, Haryana and Taml!. Three more are currently being processed. The long-term strategy is to set up IDTRs in every state, and there is also a proposal for driving licences to be issued and renewed only on production of a certificate from an IDTR. The centres will have modern equipment to train drivers, along with equipment for testing their physical attributes. The annual target is for 20,000 drivers to have'refresher' training, as well as another 2,000 learners. Transport Minister Dr C. P. Joshi also recently announced he is contemplating including road safety in the school curriculum. Speaking at the 12th Meeting of the National Road Safety Council (NRSC), he said this would have a longlasting impact on India's young children.

2015. To drive PPp, the government can fund project feasibility costs, subsidise up to 40 0 of project costs, and offer 100% tax exemption in 10 out of 20 years after project comrmssion, along with duty-free import of modern construction equipment.

Inspection centres
around 20 years ago, re-formed last year to make recommendations for reducing road fatalities. It has members from government departments, NGOs and vehicle associations, and is headed by the Transport Minister C. P. ]oshi. The Ministry ofRoad Transport and Highways also plans to set up inspection and certification centres for in-use vehicles. The Ministry will run the centres for one or two years and then upscale the scheme on PPP (0 replicate the model and set up more centres throughout each state. A project has been sanctioned in Madhya Pradesh and is being executed by the Society of Indian Automobile Manufacturers (SlAM). Nine other centres will be built in nine states, with ARAI overseeing those in Andhra Pradesh, Gujurat, Karnataka, Maharashtra and Ra]asthan and NATRIP in Himachal Pradesh, National Capital Region, Uttat Pradesh and Haryana. The government will fund the operational costs for the first year, and the centres will feature four lanes, technical services and networking and auditing of garages. After the first year, control will be handed over to the state to manage the centres

A variety of road safety strategies are under way to reduce India's 100,000+ road deaths

Problems with new infrastructure

A particular area ]oshi has highlighted is the need for better-designed infrastructure. Speaking to engineers at a workshop on Consideration on Road Safety in DeSIgn of Road Projects in New Delhi, he spoke of a need to find a balance between ideally designed roads and money-saving, inferior, unsafe ones. Consultants, contractors and manufacturers also attended the workshop. A priority of the DARS is to put a stop to the unsafe roads being built with international aid money Better-designed infrastructure would directly impact the time

and costs of transportation in India. The World Bank, regional development banks and leading donors have pledged to make road safety a priority in their lending portfolios. But India is falling behind in its targets. Around 5,000km of road construction has been awarded for ITl1 equatlng to 14km a day - 6km a day below the initial target In terms of funding for this, the government has predicted around 300 0 will come through PPP. In the Eleventh Five-Year Plan, around US$500 billion was planned to be spent between 2007 and 2012. Of this, US$92 billion was dedicated to road infrastructure, including a plan for all significant habitation to have all-weather road connections by

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