Soon, software to rectify road design fault

An average of 400 people die every day in road accidents in India with “faulty engineering” being a major cause.

Recognising the problem, the Centre has decided to develop a software to study road design of national capital and rectify its fault if any.

The Road Transport Ministry in association with Transport Research Wing and other experts will develop a software to study the engineering flaw in road design and find out solutions to traffic congestion and road accidents in the national capital, Transport Minister Nitin Gadkari said here. As the ministry wants to change faulty road designs across the country, the government will take up New Delhi as pilot project. If it becomes a success, the project will be executed in other cities also, he said. Delhi, notorious for congested roads and drivers’ indifference to traffic rules, reported highest number of deaths (1,622) in the country.

The minister who released the report, ‘Road accidents in India-2015’, also said that though the report lists drivers’ fault for 77.1% of the accidents in 2015, “faulty road engineering” is one of the major causes. In Delhi, of the total 8,085 road mishaps last year, 7,975 accidents took place in good surface and straight road. Expressing dismay over this, Gadkari said the Centre wanted to study why more accidents took place on straight roads, especially when the road surface was good. 

Apart from adopting latest technology to curb the accidents rate by monitoring the speed of the vehicles through CCTV, stricter norms for issuing driving licences, the ministry is also working on new road safety bill.

On an average, 400 people die every day in road accidents  
 Faulty engineering is behind majority of accidents
Centre has decided to develop a software to study road design for New Delhi as pilot project
Software will help study flaw in road design, find solutions to traffic congestion and road accidents in capital
Transport Ministry, Transport Research Wing and other experts will develop the software