'Toll-free helpline no. 1033 to report road accidents soon'

New Delhi, Mar 14: For reporting road accidents, the government has decided to set up a toll-free national helpline number, Parliament was informed today.

"Government has decided to set up "1033" toll free national helpline for reporting road accidents and other issues related to National Highways," Minister of State for Road Transport and Highways Pon Radhakrishnan informed Rajya Sabha in written a reply.

National Highways Authority of India (NHAI) has mandated Indian Highway Management Company Ltd (IHMCL), a firm promoted by it, to set up call centres for national highways helpline, he said. "The project has been structured under six zones," he said. For the West Zone call centre would be set up at Ahemadabad for Goa, Gujarat, Maharashtra, Rajasthan, Dadra & Nagar Haveli and Daman & Diu, he added.

The minister further that for South Zone, call centre would be set up at Mysore and states covered will include Andhra Pradesh, Karnataka, Kerala, Tamil Nadu, Telangana, Andaman and Nicobar Island, Lakshadweep and Puducherry.

Call centre for Delhi Zone will be at Gurgaon which will cover Delhi, Uttar Pradesh, Uttarakhand and Madhya Pradesh. For the Chandigarh Zone, the call centre will be at Mohali with Haryana, Himachal Pradesh, Jammu & Kashmir, Punjab and Chandigarh falling under it. For the Eastern Zone and North-Eastern Zone work has not been awarded, he informed.

The development assumes significance as India accounts for about 5 lakh road accidents, one of the highest annually of which 1.5 lakh people lose their lives and another 3 lakh are crippled.

PTI