New Delhi, Nov 2 (IANS) The government has come up with a detailed plan to reduce India's morbid record of losing a life on roads every four minutes and having the most road fatalities in the world.
The ministry of road transport and highways has initiated a move to fix the flaws in 25 most accident prone "black spots" on highways across India.
Speaking at a two-day seminar that ended here Friday, A.K. Upadhyay, secretary in the ministry, said the black spots were spots where accidents occured again and again.
"They are spread across 13 major states and account for 90 percent of road accidents in the country," he said.
"Among the 13 states that experience the maximum road fatalities are Uttar Pradesh, Tamil Nadu, West Bengal, Karnataka, Maharashtra, Rajasthan, Haryana and Madhya Pradesh," he added.
The ministry has asked the National Highway Authority of India (NHAI) and states to initiate work to fix structural flaws in roads in the five worst black spots by March 2013 and complete the whole work by December 2013.
This will be part of a four-pronged strategy to reduce road fatalities.
"The government has urged states to spend time and money on three other fronts: education of road users, new technologies for accident recording, stricter enforcement of traffic laws to crack down on violations, and emergency trauma care for road accident victims," he said.
According to the ministry, states like Tamil Nadu maintained an electronic road traffic accident data base.
Other states were being encouraged to do the same so that such spots can be identified on an ongoing basis.
"India loses more than Rs.100,000 crore a year due to road accidents," the secretary said. "In 2010, 1.34 lakh people died in road accidents.
"Till a few years ago, India was behind China in road fatalities. But now, with nearly 12 crore vehicles on the road, India is far ahead of China on this grim parameter," he added.
About 1,000 eminent road safety transportation experts from more than 30 countries took part in the seminar.
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