Govt expects 20 pc decline in road accidents, says Gadkari

New Delhi: The government expects a 20 per cent decline in road accidents from the current 5 lakh a year, Road Transport Minister Nitin Gadkari said Monday terming high fatalities in such accidents unfortunate.

Parliament's nod to pending legislation Motor Vehicles (Amendment) Bill will also help curb the accidents, said the road transport, highways, shipping, water resources, ganga rejuvenation and river development minister.

The Bill provides for stringent penalties in cases of offences and violation of traffic rules.

Currently, 5 lakh road accidents a year, the highest in the world, take place in the country in which about 1.5 lakh people die. Gadkari was addressing an event here at Rajghat after jointly flagging off a motor rally with External Affairs Minister Sushma Swaraj. The rally will cover 7,250 km in India, Bangladesh and Myanmar to commemorate the 150th anniversary of Mahatma Gandhi. It will also spread awareness about road safety.

"When the latest road accidents data comes in March, we expect about 15 to 20 per cent decline....I feel pained on such high number of accidents in which mostly youth in the age of 18 to 35 years die. We could not get much success in preventing accidents and resultant deaths but due to consistent efforts, there was a decline of 4.1 per cent in 2016 and 4.75 per cent in 2017 in road accidents," the minister said.

He said the country lacked 22 lakh drivers and fake licences is one of the major issues and to address this, the government was setting up motor training centres where issuing of licences will be done electronically.

The Motor Vehicles (Amendment) Bill, which has already been passed by the Lok Sabha, was introduced in the Upper House in April 2017, but was referred to a select panel. After taking into account the panel's recommendations, the Bill was re-introduced in the Rajya Sabha and is still pending there.