VISAKHAPATNAM: Union minister for road transport and highways Nitin Gadkari said that the government is hopeful of the Motor Vehicle (Amendment) Bill-2016 being passed. It is meant to strengthen road safety, and hefty penalties for violating traffic rules and streamlining the vehicle registration process and few others in the next session of Parliament.
Delivering the keynote address at the inaugural session on the two-day national workshop on road safety here on Friday, Mr Gadkari said that they are trying their best that the Road Transport and Safety Bill which is presently pending with Parliament Standing Committee is passed in the next session of Parliament to make our roads safer. Expressing serious concern over the increasing deaths on the roads, Mr Gadkari said that India has the highest number of road fatalities in the world with road accidents claiming more than 1.5 lakh lives every year.
Mr Gadkari said that his ministry has identified 786 black spots (where more number of road accidents take place) on National Highways in the country.
“Under the Pradhana Mantri Suraksha Sadak Yojana, government will be spending Rs 11,000 crore to fix the black spots across all national highways in the country by correcting road design, and addressing engineering issues during the next two years,” he added. There were plans to increase the length of NH from 96,000 km to two lakh kms in the ensuing years of which 1,000 km would be converted into four-lane and 20,000 km into six-lane.
Chief Minister N. Chandrababu Naidu and minister for transport Sidda Raghava Rao said that road deaths have led to an economic loss of gross domestic product, apart from causing social trauma. Andhra Pradesh will implement the best practices of other states to mitigate the road accidents, they added.
