Govt to spend Rs 14,000 cr to identify ‘black spots’ on highways to curb accidents

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New Delhi: Expressing concern over the road accidents,Union Road Transport and Highways Minister Nitin Gadkari said on Thursday that the government would spend Rs 14,000 crores on identifying “black spots” on national highway to reduce the accidents.

Replying to supplementaries in Lok Sabha, he also hailed the Tamil Nadu government for reducing the percentage of accidents by 15 per cent.

“In the whole country, I recognise the work done by Tamil Nadu. They have reduced the percentage of accidents by 15 per cent. It has happened only in Tamil Nadu and it is really one of the success stories. In other States, comparatively the track record is not good,” he said.

The Minister said that everything was excellent with his department and it was doing a “good job” but as far as road accidents are concerned the data is still not good.

“Accidents have been reduced only by 1.5 per cent to two per cent,” he said

Gadkari said following the experiment in Tamil Nadu, his ministry has prepared a Detailed Project Report worth Rs. 14,000 crores identifying the black spots on the National Highways and assessed the underpasses and bridges required.

“We have submitted this data to the Ministry of Finance. Principally, they have accepted it. It will now go to the World Bank. We are spending Rs. 14,000 crores on black spots where we want to reduce the accidents and save the lives of people,” he said.

The Minister said that saving lives on road was the highest sensitive subject for the Government.

“For the last five years, we are trying our level best but our success ratio is not satisfactory. Again, under the project of the World Bank, we will definitely look into reducing the accidents and deaths,” he added.