Every hour there are 35 accidents and one death in every four minutes and ”this is quite untenable,” he said adding how many trauma centres are being set up to deal with the road accident cases.
New Delhi;
Expressing concern over road accidents and deaths, Congress leader Adhir Ranjan Chowdhury on Monday asked the government to take steps such as construction of trauma centres near highways and increased allocation for maintenance to prevent such incidents.
Participating in the discussion on the ‘demand for grants of Ministry of Road Transport and Highways’ for 2022-23 in the Lok Sabha, he also said that it would be incorrect to compare the road construction work undertaken during UPA and NDA governments.
He further said that the foundation of road construction was laid by the UPA government.
Citing NCRB data, he said that accidental death and suicides are very high and it is unacceptable.
Every hour there are 35 accidents and one death in every four minutes and ”this is quite untenable,” he said adding how many trauma centres are being set up to deal with the road accident cases.
”If you would not construct trauma centres, you would” not be able to save lives of accident victims, Chowdhury said adding inadequate maintenance affects the country’s GDP also.
He said that increasing traffic congestion in big cities including Delhi, and Mumbai and delay in completion of projects too are big problems.
The Congress leader alleged that there is a difference between setting of targets and achieving those.
Amid increasing aggression of China in Arunachal Pradesh, there is a need for improving road infrastructure in the north-eastern states, he said, adding to meet the construction target of 25,000 kilometres of NHs in the next fiscal year, construction pace has to be increased to 68 km per day, otherwise ”you would not” be able to meet this humongous target.
He said that along with increasing pace of construction of new highways, the ministry should focus on the quality of roads also.
”After the NDA government come to power in 2014, the ministry approved approximately 72,000 km of state roads to be declared as national highways….doodh me toh paani zarur milaya hua hai (there is definitely water mixed in milk),” he said.
He also raised concerns over huge vacancies in NHAI and slow work in Bharatmala Pariyojana.
Delay in completion of projects leads to cost overrun, he said adding there are no mobile networks at highways and that also affects people.
Along with pace of construction, the government also needs to focus on ways to prevent road accidents and death, Chowdhury said.
He also asked the government to tell about progress on India–Myanmar–Thailand Trilateral Highway and Bangladesh, Bhutan, India, Nepal (BBIN) Initiative.