Skip to main content

India spending on improving safety of roads

The Indian Government is looking to upgrade its road links and also improve the condition of many road links right across the country, with a view to improving safety, as well as transportation. A series of infrastructure plans are being implemented, aimed at improving road conditions in the country. India’s Ministry for Road Transport and Highways is keen to improve road safety and reduce the fatality rate in the country. The Indian Government is establishing a Road Safety Authority that is being charged
January 14, 2016 Read time: 2 mins
The Indian Government is looking to upgrade its road links and also improve the condition of many road links right across the country, with a view to improving safety, as well as transportation. A series of infrastructure plans are being implemented, aimed at improving road conditions in the country.

India’s Ministry for Road Transport and Highways is keen to improve road safety and reduce the fatality rate in the country. The Indian Government is establishing a Road Safety Authority that is being charged with the task of halving the country’s road fatality rate. At present there are around 500,000 crashes/year in India and which kill around 150,000/year.

Some US$1.64 billion will be spent over the next five years on improving road infrastructure along 726 stretches that have been identified as having a high rate of crashes. The construction of flyovers and underpasses will be carried out as part of this plan in a bid to reduce risks for vulnerable road users such as pedestrians and cyclists.

Around 50,000km of roads are likely to be reclassified as National Highways. The move will see these roads being upgraded from single or double lanes to four-, six- or eight-lane highways. This initiative will increase India’s total length of National Highways to around 150,000km.

And another project is for the evaluation of the use of asphalt surfacing for concrete roads in the Western/Eastern peripheral expressways next to the Meerut-Delhi Expressway. This move forms part of a plan to extend the lifespan of roads.

Related Content

  • India’s longest tolled expressway is open to traffic
    January 2, 2013
    Earlier this year, a new expressway was opened to traffic in India, adding connectivity to the country’s road network - Mike Woof reports. India’s economic growth has fuelled a massive construction boom in the country. Road building has been set as a priority by the Indian Government to help ensure continued economic development and improve connectivity between major population centres. One major new expressway has recently opened to traffic, having been designed to international standards and provides insi
  • India’s poor road safety requires improvement
    September 13, 2016
    The Indian Government has revealed that 146,133 people died in crashes on the country’s roads during 2015. This figure is of concern as it is an increase of 4.6% over India’s road fatality rate of 139,671 for the previous year. Also of concern is the fact that over half of the people who died in crashes were aged from 15-34, revealing that there is a particularly high risk for the young on India’s roads. The data also shows that there were 501,423 reported crashes on India’s road network in 2015, an increas
  • Improving conspicuity and safety for India’s cyclists
    March 13, 2014
    IRF’s India Chapter launches major drive to promote the conspicuity of cyclists Road accident deaths in India are among the highest in the world. Cyclists constitute a particularly vulnerable category of road users with more than 6,800 estimated to have lost their lives on the country’s roads in 2011 alone. A large proportion of the fatalities can be attributed to nothing more than the fact that cyclists are not always sufficiently conspicuous to other road users. To address this tragic state of aff
  • Tackling India’s road safety will reduce crash rate
    February 19, 2013
    India’s road safety record is the world’s worst but there are plans to tackle the problems. Patrick Smith reports from New Delhi. A speeded up video of a short section of road in the Indian capital Delhi was followed by a question. “How many infringements did you count in that 25-second clip on a typical day in Delhi,” asked Dr Rohit Baluja, a question that brought understandable silence. It equated to hundreds of millions of infringements each year, said Dr Baluja, president, Institute of Road Traffic Educ