Cashless medical treatment for road accident victims in 3-4 months: Road Secretary

The Ministry of Roads Transport and Highways (MoRTH) plans to introduce cashless medical treatment to all injured road accident victims across the nation within the next three to four months, road secretary Anurag Jain said.

“The free and cashless medical treatment to accident injured victims is part of the amended Motor vehicle Act 2019 (MVA, 2019). Some states have implemented it but now the ministry of roads in league with the ministry of health and family welfare will be fully implementing it across the nation,” he said on Monday.

“Such cashless treatment shall be extended to road accident victims including during golden hour, as defined by the MV Amendment Act,” Jain said while inaugurating a three-day “Global Road Safety Initiative” being organised by the Institute of Road Traffic Education (IRTE) in partnership with the road ministry, United Nations Economic and Social Commission for Asia and the Pacific (UNESCAP) and the United Nations Economic Commission for Europe (UNECE).


Golden Hour is the one hour lasting an hour following a traumatic injury during which there is the highest likelihood of preventing death by providing prompt medical care.

According to Jain, India has the highest number of road accident deaths in the world. “Aiming to reduce accidents by 50% by 2030, the road ministry has formulated a multi-pronged strategy based on 5E’s of road safety. This includes education, engineering (both of roads and vehicles), enforcement and emergency care,” he said.

As part of road engineering, road safety has been made an integral part of road design at the planning stage, he said. “The electronic Detailed Accident Report (e-DAR) Project has been initiated to establish a central repository for reporting, management and analysis of road accidents data across the country and rectify the engineering faults within a month or two,” he added.

Commenting on the ministry’s initiative to increase awareness about road safety, Jain said that the Ministry of Education will soon include road safety as part of the curriculum for schools and colleges to be implemented.

“For vehicular engineering several steps have been taken including ABS brakes, two wheelers over speed warning system, seat belt reminder and introduction of Bharat NCAP (New Car Assessment Programme),” he said, adding enforcement is a real time key to ensuring motor vehicle laws.