Government to set up new National Road Safety Board

The Ministry of Finance’s Department of Expenditure has green lighted the setting up of a National Road Safety Board to advise the government in the formulation of policies related to road safety. The creation of a road safety board had been part of the Motor Vehicles (Amendment) Bill 2019.

• Advisory body to consist of Chairman and seven members
• Will focus on matters pertaining to road safety and provide advise safety measures

Working of the new Road Safety Board

The National Road Safety Board will be constituted of a panel of seven members and a Chairman, with the members having experience in the fields related to road safety, traffic regulation, urban planning, civil engineering and police enforcement and investigation. Additionally, the board will also comprise of technical committees to look into a variety of aspects of road safety from civil engineering to vehicle construction and safety equipment.

Along with the rapid expansion and up-gradation on the road network and the enforcement of higher safety standards for vehicles, the Government is now actively looking into the safety of roads too. Speaking at the recently concluded Autocar Awards, Nitin Gadkari, Minister of Road Transport and Highways had said, “Automobile engineering and road engineering, both are very important.”

“One thing is very clear, majority of the time, in a majority of accidents, everyone blames the driver. But road engineering is the main culprit for the accident,” he added.

Gadkari had also spoken on the identification of ‘black spots’ (accident prone locations) and the subsequent need for rectification.

“We have already improved more than 5,000-6,000 black spots. We now have a scheme which has been submitted to the World Bank and ADB of Rs. 14,000 Crores for improving black spots on roads, particularly on state highways, municipal corporation roads and district roads. We are very cautious about the National highway,” he said.

The roll of the new board will be that of an advisory body to the Government, providing advice in the formulation of policies and standard or matters pertaining to road safety, vehicle design standards, road construction in hilly regions and more.

SOURCE

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