Soon, a national body to oversee road safety

Thursday, Mar 11, 2010

India, which has the dubious distinction of registering the highest number of road deaths across the globe, is expected to get a statutory panel to deal with all road safety related matters.

The Road Safety Bill, with the aim of setting up a National Road Safety and Traffic Management Board at the Centre, is likely to come up for discussion in the Union Cabinet on Thursday.

With increasing accidents causing concern, the Cabinet will also take up a national transport safety policy for discussion.

Sources said that once the relevant Bill gets the Cabinet's go ahead, it would be introduced in Parliament in the current session.

The road ministry has moved the proposal three years after an expert committee submitted its report on "Road Safety and Traffic Management" recommending the creation of a special Act and creation of an apex board besides a road safety fund.

The board's job would be to advise the Central government on administration of road safety laws and recommend standards for design, construction and maintenance of national highways, safety standards for motor vehicles and standards for establishing and operating trauma facilities on national highways, sources said.

Earlier, the law ministry had opposed creation of the board on the ground that road safety is a state subject and the Centre had no authority to set up such a board.

The board will also be provided financial autonomy through the creation of a National Road Safety Fund, which will get 1% of the total cess collected on petrol and diesel. Officials said that the board will also deal with data collection of road accidents (both fatal and injuries) and also crash investigations to find out the reasons behind road accidents.

"At present, there is no responsibility within the Central government so far as road safety is concerned even though deaths due in road accidents are shooting up every year. The present National Road Safety Council is non-statutory, meets only once a year and there is no responsibility. We need a Central agency, which will govern and will be responsible for the state of affairs in the road safety sector,'' said Rohit Baluja, member of the Commission for Global Road Safety representing India and Asia.

The committee headed by S Sundar had in its report said that the responsibility for road safety is `diffused' and there is no single agency to deal with a range of problems associated with road safety. "There is also no effective mechanism for coordinating the activities of different agencies dealing with road safety. The role of key ministries and public sector agencies in improving road safety is peripheral. It is not a priority area in their agenda for development,'' it had mentioned.

Road accident deaths in India increased from 1.14 lakh in 2007 to 1.18 lakh in 2008. The Centre has said that it would take steps to bring down fatalities by 50% by 2012.

Original news source http://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/india/Soon-a-national-body-to-oversee-road-safety/articleshow/5669070.cms