Focusing on its commitment to reduce the number of road accidents in India by 50 percent, the Ministry of Road Transport & Highways (MoRTH) yesterday announced a multi-pronged trategy to achieve its objective.

Speaking at the national level workshop on Road Safety Engineering Measures, Road Transport & Shipping Minister, Nitin Gadkari, announced the strategy which includes effective road engineering solutions at the design stage, rectification of accident black spots, improvement in automobile engineering, driver education, revision and effective enforcement of laws.

Also speaking about the importance of road engineering in preventing accidents and the resultant loss of lives, the minister said that simple and well thought out designs like the height of road dividers, placement of over-bridges and underpasses at appropriate places or the placement and design of speed breakers can often be very effective in ensuring safety on roads. Gadkari called upon all project directors and regional officers of highway projects to adopt a sensitive, sensible, time-bound and result oriented approach to tackle the problem of road accidents and take up the work of rectification of accident Black Spots in mission mode. He also called upon all highway engineers to ensure that sound engineering solutions are put in place at the design stage of the highway itself. 

Stressing the importance of proactive measures the minister of state for Road Transport & Highways, Mansukh L Mandaviya, said that local problems of a highway site should be taken into account when preparing the DPR for a highway project. Giving the example of frequent landslides in the North Eastern and hilly states, Mandavia said that appropriate solutions should be built into the road designs at the DPR stage. He also emphasised the importance of developing indigenous technology in this area and said that long term vision and initiative are keys to tackling the problem. 

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