Proposal for the National Road Safety Board approved by the Finance Ministry

The Finance Ministry's department of expenditure has given approval to set up the National Road Safety Board under the Ministry of Road Transport and Highways (MoRTH). This initiative contributes to the government’s plan to bring down road fatalities in the country as over 1.5 lakh individuals lose their lives on Indian roads every year.

The National Road Safety Board will act as an advisory body to the government and establish policies for road safety. It will make sure that they are enforced and implemented to help reduce road accidents and deaths arising from them.

The committee will look into improving road infrastructure and adding new innovations for traffic control. Rural areas and hilly regions are often ignored when it comes to road planning so the board will also focus on road construction and traffic management in villages.

The board will include a panel of seven members and a chairman who have had experience in the fields of road safety, traffic regulation, urban planning, civil engineering and police enforcement and investigation. It will also include technical committees to analyse different areas of road safety, such as ranging vehicle construction standards, civil engineering, vehicles recall and vehicle safety equipment.

On the inception of the National Road Safety Board, Rama Shankar Pandey, Chairman, Road Safety Sub-Committee, FICCI said, “This is the first step. India should have done this earlier. In a way, it should become like the GST council we have today. The Finance Ministry’s approval is good news for us.”

India accounts for nearly 11 per cent of all road deaths in the world, this initiative is an appropriate step towards the government's plan to reduce road accident fatalities that occur every year, as it will look into different and innovative ways to hopefully bring down that number with analysis and implementation.