Union Minister for Road Transport and Highways Nitin Gadkari called all the state transport ministers and officials to work together to reduce road accidents and deaths by 50 per cent by 2024. In an interactive session with the state transport Ministers in Bengaluru, Gadkari said the Issue of road safety should not be taken lightly.

He said, “road accidents should be reviewed constantly and rectified. The Minister proposed training engineering students for conducting safety audits of the roads based on which the Ministry can take action”.

State Transport /PWD Ministers have raised their issues related to highway infrastructure, shared all problems with them, and urged the Central Government to resolve them.

Shri Govindas Kounthujam (Manipur), Shri Prafull Kumar Mallik (Odisha), Shri Bhajan Lal Jatav (Rajasthan), Shri Satpal Maharaj (Uttarakhand), Shri A.V. Velu (Tamil Nadu), Arvind Chauhan (Maharashtra), Shri Harbhajan Singh (Punjab), Shri Nilesh Kabra (Goa) all of them attended the session. Besides, Principal Secretaries and Secretaries of PWD Ministries of various states were also present.

Shri Kounthujam said 90% of areas are hilly, and there are land acquisition problems with National Highway projects. “But we are trying to solve these problems, and soon we will be able to get land,” he said. He said we want to develop highway infrastructure at par with other states.

Talking about the issues of Sikkim, Shri Samdup Lapcha said the state faces a resource crunch, and tourism is the only source of economy. “We survive on tourism. It will be good if we get an alternated road from Bankura to Sikkim; this will also be good in terms of security,” he said.

Tamil Nadu Minister Shri Velu spoke about the steps taken by the State Government to make the State accident-free. “More than 300 engineers have been trained. We have also launched a sensitization programme for school students in the state,” he pointed out.

Talking about Uttarakhand, Shri Satpal Maharaj said, “In view of incidents of landslides, which damage the highways, a landslide and mitigation centre has been set up to look for ways to minimize these damages,” he said. Shri Gadkari said he is getting full support from the Uttarakhand Government in the Char Dham Pariyojana.