Centre creates corpus for accident victims

The Centre has created a corpus of Rs 20 crore for providing cashless treatment to accident victims on the Gurgaon-Jaipur stretch of the national highway at empanelled hospitals for the first 48-hours.

A memorandum of understanding (MoU) has been signed between the Union Ministry of Road Transport and Highways (MoRTH) and ICICI Lombard to launch a pilot project.
The MoU would provide for executing the project on zero administrative expenses basis in which the ministry will spend Rs 30 lakh as part of corporate social responsibility (CSR).

“About 1.4 lakh people die in road accidents every year. The project, which probably is the first of its kind in the country, is another serious effort on the part of MoRTH to arrest and bring down the graph of road accidents and fatalities,” an official statement said.
The cashless treatment, subject to a ceiling of Rs 30,000, is expected to be launched within two months.

“The idea is that no one may be deprived of immediate treatment for want of money. The hospitals will include not only government hospitals, but also private hospitals having requisite facilities. The project is being launched to gain data and experience for rolling out a pan-India scheme aimed at providing immediate medical attention to the victims during the ‘golden hour’,” it added.

In order to make the project a success, the ministry will enrol large number of volunteers who will be trained in first-aid and trauma care.

The volunteers will reach the accident site and report to the control room and also assist in first-aid and transportation of the victims to hospital.

The control room will be linked to a fleet of ambulances fitted with GPS devices, and deployed on the identified stretch exclusively for transporting victims to the nearest hospital, it said.

The project, to be executed in close association with the governments of Haryana and Rajasthan, would include scientific investigation of crashes through IIT Delhi for the purpose of strengthening mechanical safety of vehicles, identifying and treating deficiencies in road geometry and deciding various other measures for road safety.