NEW DELHI, Jan 11 - Concerned over alarmingly high number of road accidents in the country, Union Minister Nitin Gadkari today said the Government will spend Rs 11,000 crore over the next five years to improve the road infrastructure.
Stating that road accidents cause an annual loss of around Rs 60,000 crore, or 3 per cent of the GDP to the country, the Road Transport and Highways Minister said the Centre has initiated a slew of steps aimed at minimising such mishaps.
Marking the start of the Road Safety Week with a �Walkathon� from India Gate, Gadkari said the Government has identified and started work on ten major accident black spots in Delhi.
He further said that India is among those countries that suffer a very high number of road accidents every year and even wars do not witness such a high number of casualties that the nation is suffering due to this menace.
�In a year, 5 lakh accidents take place in the country, of which 1.5 lakh people die and another 3 lakh are crippled for life. So many people do not die even in wars. This is a serious concern,� Gadkari said. � PTI
