Road accidents in the country are steadily on the increase; and so are the casualty rates. Note also the sharp increase in the number of vehicles. The issue requires to be tackled at the government level with a sense of urgency. In all fairness, Minister for Surface Transport, Nitin Gadkari is concerned over the painful scenario and has acknowledged this in Parliament. But this alone will not make a difference. The need of the hour is action on the ground on two main fronts. One, ensuring road discipline on the part of motorists; two, and more importantly, constant vigil on the part of the roads authorities to keep analysing the cause and context of accidents so as to take remedial action if there existed any structural flaws in the road construction.
Gadkari has admitted that there was a 50 per cent increase in road accidents during his terms as roads minister, though his initial promise to the nation was to “reduce” the number. As per the statistics he provided to Parliament, road mishaps claimed 1.78 lakh lives annually; and 60 per cent of the victims were youths in the age-group of 18 and 34. Youths tend to ride/drive with high speed and often in a rash manner. Delhi, with 1,400 deaths a year, itself presents the worst scenario among cities, but Uttar Pradesh tops the states with over 23,000 deaths. Setting up instruments to check the speed of vehicles on the road, including use of cameras, can be a guarantee against over-speeding. These should be in working condition day and night; and fines should be heavy. In both these, state governments are slack. While national highways are managed by the central government, as many mishaps take place on state highways as also city roads. The authorities must be insisting on the wearing of helmets by bike-riders, but they rather look the other way. These raise the fatality levels.
One of the main reasons for road mishaps is wrong parking of trucks and other vehicles, mainly during night time when visibility is low. Unscientific laying of roads with no space for parking at most stretches, lack of proper placement of road signs, abrupt curves and turns etc are also major reasons for road mishaps. Roads are a sector that are infested by corrupt practices. Many officials are more interested in making extra-income and compromise with rules. They play into the hands of contractors. State-level road projects hardly use half of the funds meant for road construction, while the other half is shared between rackets of engineers, local politicians, officials and contractors. The long years of the Modi governance from Delhi saw massive fund inputs for development of national highways hectored by Gadkari. Huge fund mismanagement was also evident, as was recorded by the CAG in a report.
