The National Road Safety Board will comprise seven members and a Chairman; all the members will be required to have appropriate experience.
Most useful and interesting news to share this morning today — India will now get its own National Road Safety Board. The Department of Expenditure, Ministry of Finance, has given its go-ahead to the board that will serve to advise the government with establishing policies for road safety as well as evaluate their enforcement and implementation to help rein in road accidents and deaths arising from them. It must be noted this apex statutory entity is a part of the amended Motor Vehicle Act 2019.
Now, one is bound to wonder so who has been filling in the shoes of this yet-to-be-set-up National Road Safety Board so far? Well, that would be an informal team of officials at the Ministry of Road Transport and Highways who help the government deal with road safety issues in the country. But more about the board now — though it is essentially an advisory body, it will also include technical committees to analyze different facets of road safety, such as ranging vehicle construction standards, civil engineering, vehicles recall, vehicle safety equipment, etc.
That’s not all though — the upcoming National Road Safety Board will also help the government of India establishes all relevant standards — such as those for traffic management, road construction, road safety, vehicle safety etc.
The National Road Safety Board will comprise seven members and a Chairman; all the members will be required to have appropriate experience in fields relevant to road safety, and vehicle safety such as urban planning, civil engineering, police enforcement, and investigation, traffic management, traffic regulation, urban planning, civil engineering and police enforcement and investigation etc.
Working of the new Road Safety Board
Additionally, the board will also comprise of technical committees to look into a variety of aspects of road safety from civil engineering to vehicle construction and safety equipment.
Along with the rapid expansion and up-gradation on the road network and the enforcement of higher safety standards for vehicles, the Government is now actively looking into the safety of roads too. Speaking at the recently concluded Autocar Awards, Nitin Gadkari, Minister of Road Transport and Highways had said, “Automobile engineering and road engineering, both are very important.”
“One thing is very clear, majority of the time, in a majority of accidents, everyone blames the driver. But road engineering is the main culprit for the accident,” he added.
Gadkari had also spoken on the identification of ‘black spots’ (accident prone locations) and the subsequent need for rectification.
“We have already improved more than 5,000-6,000 black spots. We now have a scheme which has been submitted to the World Bank and ADB of Rs. 14,000 Crores for improving black spots on roads, particularly on state highways, municipal corporation roads and district roads. We are very cautious about the National highway,” he said.
The roll of the new board will be that of an advisory body to the Government, providing advice in the formulation of policies and standard or matters pertaining to road safety, vehicle design standards, road construction in hilly regions and more.
