Gujarat govt announces Road Safety Policy 2016

Gandhinagar, Mar 14: Gujarat government today announced its Road Safety Policy 2016 in the state Assembly, which aims to reduce at least 50 per cent road accidents in the state by 2020.

State Road Transport Minister Vijay Rupani, who announced the new policy, said there was an urgent need to save human lives which are lost in accidents in the state.

"7,955 people have died, while 6,309 were seriously injured in 23,712 accidents in Gujarat in 2014," he said. Under this new policy, the state government intends to increase co-ordination between various government departments as well as NGOs to implement the concept of four Es, namely enforcement of law, education of road safety, engineering of roads and emergency situation management.

"We will increase coordination among various departments and NGOs, seek help of experts and set up a system to reduce at least 50 per cent of road accidents in the state by 2020," said Rupani in his speech.

Some of the key features of the policy include reducing the time in bringing accident victims to hospitals, for which, the government has announced to introduce air ambulance service in the near future.

In addition to 550 ambulances run by 108 service, the state will induct another 35 ambulances in this fiscal, stated the policy document tabled in the House.

Under this policy, the government will build a comprehensive database of all the accidents in the state and engage professional agencies to carry out research work on causes of accidents on major roads.

As per the policy, the state government will strictly implement the provision of fitness certificate to be acquired by commercial vehicles at regular intervals.

Further, government will set up four fitness checking centers in four different zones of the state. On the enforcement front, the state government will purchase speed detecting guns as well as new interceptor vehicles under this policy to deter law breakers, stated the policy.

PTI