The Central government’s endeavour by 2020 was to reduce accidents prevailing across the country by half, Union Minister of State for Road Transport and Highways Pon. Radhakrishnan said on Tuesday.
Seeking the cooperation of drivers and other road users in curbing accident rate, Mr. Radhakrishnan said the Centre along with the State government was attempting to bring down the accident rate by improving roads and carrying out sensitisation programmes on road safety.
The Minister made these remarks while presiding over a workshop on road safety organised jointly by the Union Ministry of Road Transport and Highways and the State Transport Department. He also took part in a road safety awareness rally in the city.
Nearly 5 lakh road accidents were being reported across the country in a year with the number of deaths exceeding one lakh. The accident rate in Tamil Nadu was the highest in the country with the figure touching 69,000.
Majority of the accidents occurred because of the drivers’ fault, he said stressing on the need to provide more training and sensitisation programmes for them. The Minister said nearly 40% of vehicular movements – passenger and freight – were on national highways which accounts for only 2% of the total length of the roads in the country and nearly 28% of the accidents take place on NHs.
Permanent solutions should be found in the identified accident-prone black spots in the State and National Highways, he said. There was no paucity of funds for the Centre with respect to implementing road schemes and those connected with safety, he said.
State Transport Minister M. R. Vijayabhaskar said the State government through the Transport Department was carrying out programmes aimed at curbing accident rate amid rising vehicle density. The State government had increased the Road Safety Fund which was being granted to the districts, he said. State Transport Commissioner Dayanand Kataria, Additional Director General of Police, Traffic Planning Cell, K. Jayanth Murali, Inspector General of Police, Central Zone. V. Varadharaju, Collector K. S. Palanisamy and Commissioner of Police A. Arun took part in the workshop.
