Policy intervention must to reduce vehicles in cities: NGT chief

NGT chairperson Justice Adarsh Kumar Goel urged the government and road safety experts to add ‘environment’ as part of the road safety campaign

National Green Tribunal (NGT) chairperson Justice Adarsh Kumar Goel on Tuesday said that policy intervention is necessary to decide the number of vehicles to be permitted proportionate to the capacity of roads in a city.

“The question of number of vehicles to be permitted proportionate to the capacity of the roads in a city is a vital issue of planning on which a policy is required to be explored in the larger interest of the environment, especially for cities or areas where air quality is not consistent with the norms,” he said.

He was speaking after inaugurating a conference ‘Fast tracking road safety through 5E’s’ organised by the India chapter of the International Road Federation (IRF).

Goel urged the government and road safety experts to add ‘environment’ as part of the road safety campaign, as vehicular traffic on roads adds to air pollution, affecting human health.

“Road safety and highway construction are interlinked, the growing menace has to be tackled and handled together. Due to the present fast-changing target of road development in the country, road safety is taking a back seat. Moreover, most of the road construction projects in the country are retrofitting except some greenfield projects,” P V V S S Ravi Prasad, Director General of road development, Ministry of Road Transport and Highways said.

“The National Motor Vehicle Act has incorporated compensation to accident victims within 60 days, which has been implemented in Delhi but the rest of the country is yet to implement it as it takes years for the accident victim to get compensation,” said Justice (Retd) J R Midha.

“India accounts for more than 11% of total global road accidents and is a signatory to the UN declaration to reduce 50% of road accidents by the year 2030. Union Ministry of road transport and highways has reduced the target to the year 2025. IRF as part of its effort to reduce road accident deaths is focusing on E’s of road safety including Engineering, Vehicle Engineering, Education, enforcement and Emergency care,” said K K Kapila, President, Emeritus, IRF.