Road safety audit of highways

 Worried over rising accidents, the Centre has decided to conduct road safety audit of 3,000 km of central and state highways this year.

Road safety audit involves evaluating highway improvement scheme during design, at the end of construction and post construction, to identify road safety problems and to suggest measures to eliminate or mitigate any concerns, Ministry of Road Transport and Highways Secretary Sanjay Mitra said here.

He was speaking at a seminar jointly organised by the Road Ministry and International Road Federation (IRF) as part of the ongoing National Road Safety Week.
These audits will be undertaken by teams of specialists trained in the skills of road safety engineering, Mitra explained.

He also said the Centre is also planning to launch a programme to sensitise and educate truck drivers on road safety on the lines of AIDS awareness and prevention programme launched for heavy vehicle drivers several years ago.

Under the programme, all medium and heavy vehicle drivers will be educated about careless driving and on benefits of road worthiness of vehicles, the secretary added.

IRF Chairman K K Kapila said with 80 per cent of all road deaths globally estimated in low-income countries, India leads the world in road accident deaths with around 1,40,000 people being killed each year. India accounts for 10 per cent of global road accident deaths.