Govt to make seat belt alert mandatory: Gadkari

Union Road Transport Minister Nitin Gadkari on Friday said the government will make seat belt alert system mandatory in all vehicles.

As per the proposal, all cars manufactured after March 2019 must have seat belt alerts, driver airbags, speed warning alert system and reverse parking alert system.

Since the government has set the target to reduce road accidents by 50% by 2020, the Union Road Transport Ministry is focussing on bringing the safety features of cars sold in India as per global standards. In India, around 1.5 lakh people are killed in road accidents every year.

The minister also said that the government is spending more than Rs 20,000 crore to rectify accident-prone black spots on roads across the country in order to reduce fatalities in such incidents.

"One of the major reasons for road accidents is flawed engineering. We have already identified the black spots...We are spending more than Rs 20,000 crore only for implementing this and making underpasses, flyovers etc," the road and transport minister said.

Gadkari said road safety issue requires more public awareness besides a serious approach in important factors like issuance of driving licences.