Raja Syed Rather
New Delhi, Jan 7: Union Road Transport and Highways Minister Nitin Gadkari on Tuesday revealed that in 2024, around 1.80 lakh people died in road accidents across the country.
Speaking after meeting with the transport ministers of several states, Gadkari, said, “We discussed road safety and agreed upon it being a priority for every State and the Union Territory.”
While referring to the deaths in accidents, the Union Minister said.
“In the year 2024, 1.80 lakh deaths have occurred in road safety. 32,000 people have died because of not wearing helmets. The second serious thing is that 60% of accidents have occurred in people between the ages of 18 to 34. Nearly 10,000 people have died due to a lack of proper arrangement at the exit-entry point in front of our schools and colleges. “
“Accidents caused by people without driving licenses have caused around 3,000 deaths. One of the important agendas of our meeting was driving training centers. There are 22 lakh drivers in our country. We have also made a new policy on that,” he added.
He said, “Rules have been made for the auto rickshaws and minibuses for our schools so that there is a large-scale increase in accidents. After identifying all this, the reasons were discussed and then everyone decided together that we would try to reduce it.”
Announces cashless treatment
Gadkari announced a new scheme to provide cashless treatment to road accident victims. “Once the police are informed within 24 hours of the accident, the scheme will immediately provide for the victim’s cost of treatment for 7 days, or a maximum of Rs 1.5 lakh. In case of death in a hit-and-run case, the immediate family of the deceased person will receive Rs 2 lakh,” he said, adding, “We piloted this cashless project in some states. We noticed some weaknesses in the scheme. We are improving them and this will definitely be beneficial.”
Gadkari also spoke about scrapping of old vehicles. “Our automobile sector will grow profoundly because of scrapping. This is because aluminum, copper, steel and plastic are recycled,” he said.
“Maruti Suzuki’s scrapping centre is exporting some of these parts to Japan. Tire powder is being added to bitumen. So this will become a circular economy. The scrapping policy will create more jobs in the country. Union and state governments will cumulatively earn additional GST worth Rs 18,000 crore through it,” Gadkari said.
He said India’s automobile industry became the third largest in the world around four months back, leaving Japan behind. “When our government took charge in 2014, the size of our automobile industry was Rs 7 lakh crore. Today, that has increased to Rs 22 lakh crore,” he added.
