Ahmedabad: Gujarat Government in it’s bid to remove the state’s name from the list of top 10 in terms of number of road accident deaths in the country is working full time to reduce road accidents by 50 per cent by the year 2020, Chief Secretary J N Singh today said.

“ The Gujarat government in its bid is trying to cut the road accident fatality by half through a new road safety policy that focuses on first response at the ‘golden hour’ (the first hour after the accident). The state wants to reduce the fatal accident by nearly 50% by 2020,” Singh while inaugurating a day long conference on ‘Fast Tracking Road Safety Initiatives in Gujarat’ organised by Global road safety body International Road Federation (IRF) in Ahmedabad today said.

“ Gujarat government has already announced Road Safety policy in the state assembly last year with quick rescue of injured and administration of first aid is the principal focus of the policy A new guideline to ensure that best practices in road designing are followed by those involved in road construction is also in the pipeline. The Government also plans to have uniform design of all roads so that the number of accidents due to faulty designs can be minimized.” Said Mr Singh.

“Under the policy the state government has proposed to bring all the concerned agencies under one umbrella and also create a road safety fund.The new policy is aimed to create awareness among youngsters, the new Gujarat Road Safety Policy intends to start government recognized institutes which will train the future drivers and also make road safety an integral part of the syllabus for school and college students. The new policy envisages the state will adopt the best practices in designing safe roads. The government will ensure zero black spot policy for reduction in the road accidents. The black spots in Ahmedabad as well as other parts of the state will be removed soon “ he added.

Notably, total of 23,183 road accidents took place in the state as per a report released by the Union Ministry of Road Transport and Highways (MoRTH) during the year 2015 accounting for 4.6 % of road accidents in the country thus ranking Seventh. Tamil Nadu state ranks first in the list .

“International Road Federation with support of the Union and the state government plans to develop a small Intelligent Transportation System (ITS) demonstration stretch on Surat and Hazira road which is part of National Highway 6 and has heaviest traffic due to industrial and commercial development . This stretch will have the latest traffic and junction management gadgets, traffic control systems, and lane violation check cameras. This will provide sufficient road safety measures for both pedestrian and vehicular traffic” said Mr K. K Kapila, Chairman , International Road Federation while speaking on the occasion.

“Road accident deaths fatalities in Gujarat were 8,119 which was about 5.6 % of the total road fatalities in the country. India is a signatory to the UN Decade of Action Plan 2011-2020 which envisages a reduction in road accident fatalities by 50% by 2020. Several black spots have been identified in Ahemdabad especially on S.G Highway, Ashram and S.P road, IRF will assist in removing these black spots soon ” said Mr K K Kapila, Chairman, International Road Federation (IRF).

“Some of the road safety related issues that were discussed during the day long conference included blackspot identification through road safety audits, blackspot engineering interventions and implementation, Road safety education through school curriculum, enhanced First aid trauma care, Introduction to Intelligent Transport Solutions (ITS) , Conspicuity (Reflective tapes) – Its Relevance and Importance for Safe Operations in Gujarat , the Roadmap for India and World and the forthcoming Cross Roads – World Road Meeting (WRM) 2017 in November this year ” said Mr Kapila.
Eminent road Transport experts and specialists participating at the road safety conference included, Mr. N. K. Sinha, Chairman, IRF India , Mr. Ravi Prasad, Chief Engineer, MoRTH, Mr. Pankaj R. Patel, President, FICCI, Padmashri Dr. Subroto Das, Founder, NGO Lifeline Foundation, Dr. Adnan Rahman, Director General IRF Geneva, Dr. Amit Gupta, Professor, Division of Trauma Surgery and Critical Care, JPNATC AIIMS, Delhi, Mr. Atul Shukla 3M and Mr. Bharat Modi, Reflexite.

DeshGujarat