Over 3.66 lakh road accidents caused about 1.32 lakh deaths in 2020: Govt

A total of 3,66,138 road accidents occurred in India during the calendar year 2020, causing 1,31,714 deaths, Parliament was informed on Thursday.

Replying to a question in the Lok Sabha, Minister of Road Transport and Highways Nitin Gadkari said his ministry has formulated a multi-pronged strategy to address the issue of road safety based on education, engineering (both of roads and vehicles), enforcement, and emergency care.

The Ministry of Road Transport and Highways (MoRTH) has notified "Member of Parliament's Road Safety Committee" in each district of the country to promote awareness amongst road users under the chairmanship of Member of Parliament (Lok Sabha) from the district.

Replying to a separate question, Gadkari said that in the first three months of the current financial year, 2,284 km of national highways have been constructed in the country.

According to the minister, 12,000 km has been targeted for the construction of national highways (NHs) in 2021-22 for the country.

Replying to another question, Gadkari said his ministry has received a list of 100 tourist destinations, subsequently revised to 50 destinations, from the Ministry of Tourism for setting up of Wayside Amenities, prominent signages, and beautification of the area at a distance of 15 to 20 kms on the either side of the tourist destination.

The minister also noted that MoRTH has approved a scheme in January 2020 for development, customization, deployment and management of state-wise vehicle tracking platform for Safety & Enforcement as per AIS 140 Specifications in states/UTs under Nirbhaya Framework with a total estimated cost of Rs 463.90 crore.

Proposals in this regard have been received from 29 states/UTs and implementation is under process, he said.