Govt targets 50 pc reduction in road accidents in next 5 yrs

Jaipur, Feb 2: The Centre plans to reduce road accidents by 50 per cent in next five years and has earmarked Rs 11,000 crore to fix the problem of identified black spots, Road Transport and Highways Minister Nitin Gadkari said today.

The NDA government was focusing on ways to reduce road accidents in India and it has earmarked Rs 11,000 crore for fixing the problem of 726 black spots, he said. Speaking at the All India Regional Editors conference here, Gadkari said that the construction of highways in the country has gone up to 18 kms per day and the target is to increase it to 30 kms per day by the end of March.

The minister added that he aims to create capacity of 100 kms construction of highways per day in the country. He said the target is to have over 1.5 lakh kms of roads as national highways from the present 97,000 kms and it may also go up to 1.75 lakh kms after discussions with the states.

Gadkari underlined need for using ethanol, bio-diesel, bio-CNG and electric vehicles to check pollution. He said the country will switch to BS VI emission norms from April, 2020.

Emphasising on development of waterways, the Minister said the National Waterways Bill, 2015 which has been passed by the Lok Sabha is likely to be moved for consideration in Rajya Sabha during the forthcoming Budget Session.

With this, he said, the number of National Waterways will go up to 111 including five existing National Waterways. He announced that a study for alignment and environmental impact has been undertaken for building a navigation canal from Kori Creek, Kutch to Jalore in Rajasthan.

Gadkari also informed that a national perspective plan for comprehensive development of the country’s coastline and maritime sector is under preparation.

PTI