The Minister for Road Transport & Highways and Shipping Nitin Gadkari flagged off a Road Safety Walk from India Gate in New Delhi this morning. Union Minister for Civil Aviation Shri Ashok Gajpathi Raju and Minister of State for Home Affair Shri Hansraj Gangaram Ahir were also present on the occasion. The walk was organized by the Ministry of Road Transport and Highways, in association with Delhi Police and Society for Indian Automobile Manufactures (SIAM) to create awareness about road safety among the general public and to solicit their active participation in the road safety movement. The walk marks the beginning of the Road Safety Week which is being observed from 9th to 15th of January 2017. Several NGOs and youth organizations also participated in the walk.Speaking on the occasion Shri Gadkari reiterated the commitment of his Ministry to reduce the number of road accidents and the associated fatalities by 50 in the next few years. He said his Ministry was working on all the 4 Es of road safety – Engineering, Enforcement, Education and Emergency Care – to meet this objective. He informed that the work of rectification of identified accident Black Spots was on in full swing. An amount of Rs 11,000 Crore has been set aside for this purpose. He also called upon people to report to the Ministry any spot where there were very frequent road accidents, so that steps could be taken to rectify the engineering defects. He also informed that flyovers, underpasses, crash barriers, rumble strips, traffic signages etc were being put up in an appropriate manner to bring down road accidents.
Shri Gadkari also expressed hope that the Motor Vehicles (Amendment ) Bill which is with the Department- related Parliamentary Standing Committee on Transport, Tourism and Culture for examination will be passed by Parliament in its next session.The Bill addresses road safety issues by providing for stiffer penalties, permitting electronic enforcement, improving fitness certification and licensing regime, statutory provisions for protection of good Samaritans and recognition of IT enabled enforcement systems. The Bill also paves way for reforms in public transport which in turn will help in improving road safety. The Bill contains provisions for treatment of accident victims during golden hour which will help in saving precious lives.Referring to the Good Samaritans Guidelines issued by the Ministry, Shri Gadkari called upon people to come forward to help accident victims so that prompt intervention and emergency care can save precious lives . He called upon people to follow traffic rules and show responsibility on roads. In this regard he called upon the youth of the country to reach out to people and educate them about road safety issues.Also speaking on the occasion Shri A.Gajpathi Raju said that it is not possible to make Indian roads safe unless people come forward and do their bit in this regard. Shri Hansraj Gangaram Ahir also called for people’s participation to bring down the number of road accidents and fatalities related to these.Secretary Road Transport & Highways Shri Sanjay Mitra, Delhi Police Commissioner Shri Alok Kumar Verma and Delhi Jt CP Traffic Ms Garima Bhatnagar also addressed the gathering. A youth group presented a street play on traffic rules and safety issues on the occasion.