Union Road Transport and Highways Minister Nitin Gadkari
New Delhi: Union Road Transport and Highways Minister Nitin Gadkari on Thursday said poor road construction should be made a non-bailable offense and contractors and engineers should be held responsible for accidents and sent to jail. He said that India is number one in the world in road accidents.
Contractors and engineers should be held guilty for road accidents: Gadkari
Addressing an event organized by industry body Confederation of Indian Industry (CII), Nitin Gadkari said faulty road construction should be made a non-bailable offense and road contractors, concessionaires and engineers should be held responsible for accidents. The Union Minister also expressed deep concern over road accidents.
One lakh 72 thousand people will die in road accidents in the year 2023: Gadkari
The Union Minister also said that the Ministry of Road Transport and Highways aims to reduce deaths in road accidents to half by 2030. According to ministry data, there were five lakh road accidents in the country in 2023, resulting in 1,72,000 deaths. Gadkari said that of these, 66.4 percent or 1,14,000 people were in the age group of 18-45 years, while 10,000 were children.
55 thousand died due to not wearing helmet
Nitin Gadkari said that 55,000 people died due to not wearing helmets and 30,000 people died due to not wearing seat belts. The minister also said that the Highways Ministry is spending Rs 40,000 crore to fix black spots (accident-prone spots) on the highways. Gadkari urged the industry and other concerned units to partner with the government to set up training and fitness centers to overcome the acute shortage of drivers in the country.
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