Government plans safer roads with new department, authority

NEW DELHI: In its bid to put more focus on transport sector and to reduce deaths on Indian roads, the road transport and highways ministry will move two crucial proposals seeking Cabinet approval. The proposals are setting up of a separate department of transport and second an authority to deal with all issues relating to road and vehicle safety.

Sources said both the proposals have got green signal during consultation meetings with different ministries including finance. While a committee on financial issues cleared the plan for setting up the authority a couple of weeks back, a group of secretaries headed by cabinet secretary on Friday asked the ministry to prepare the proposal for a separate department to deal with transport related issues.

"All these years the focus has been more on building and maintaining highways and the transport sector has been neglected. The ministry deals with several issues relating to transport sector including setting up of drivers' training centres, vehicle inspection centres, setting emission norms and other standard for all types of motor vehicles. So you need a dedicated department with requisite manpower to deal with this," a ministry official said justifying the proposal.

There is a proposal to have four verticals in the new department dealing with different issues including public transport and multi-modal transport.

The ministry has also prepared a detailed proposal for the road and vehicle safety authority, which has been incorporated in the proposed Road Transport and Safety Bill. The authority will be squarely responsible for all issues relating to safety of all road users and vehicle occupants. It will also be responsible for setting standards for roads besides dealing with crash investigations.

Countries that have brought down road deaths and crashes have such independent bodies. "Since the passage of the bill may take more time, we have proposed setting up of the authority through an executive order. The process to put the system in place would take time. The idea is not to waste any time to make the body functional," said a ministry official.

As a part of the UN Decade for Action on Road Safety, all countries have been requested to set up a nodal body for road safety. India has the highest number of road deaths across the world.