NEW DELHI, June 9 - In what should come as a relief to the newly elected BJP Government in Assam, the number of road accidents in the State has declined to 6,959.
A report, �Road Accidents in India 2015�, released on Thursday by Union Minister for Road Transport and Highway Nitin Gadkari, revealed that after recording high numbers of road accidents in 2013 and 2014, at 7,211 and 7,144, respectively, it has gone down last year. Altogether 6,535 road accidents were recorded in Assam in 2012, the report added.
The total number of persons killed in Assam were 2,291 (2012), 2,441 (2013), 2,522 (2014) and 2,397 (2015). However, the number of injured in Assam is high, with the State recording 7,068 in 2015, 6,499 (2014), 6,609 (2013) and 6,709 (2012).
Moreover, Assam is not among the 13 States which have recorded high number of road accidents and casualties.
According to the report, Assam�s share in total number of road accidents has been recorded at 0.1 per cent.
Meanwhile, on an average 400 persons die every day in road accidents in India, with �faulty engineering� being a major cause, Gadkari said while admitting that not much has changed even after two years of �dedicated work and sincere efforts�. The Union Minister said that he is �deeply pained� at the findings, which show 17 deaths in 57 crashes per hour and that over 54 per cent of those getting killed being in the age group of 15 to 34 years.
�Let people criticise us, but I want to make the report public. Our two years of dedicated work and sincere efforts have resulted in not much change, but we are committed to changing the scenario as I cannot allow this. My heart fills with immense pain,� he said.
�Human sacrifices cannot be allowed. We have taken a slew of steps in the last two years to minimise this, including launching of the Pradhan Mantri Sadak Suraksha Yojana and earmarked 1 per cent of the project cost for road safety that translates to Rs 5,000 crore on it,� he added.
Though the report lists driver�s fault for 77.1 per cent of the road accidents in 2015, �faulty road engineering� is one of the major causes, he said.
In order to minimise cost of construction, the UPA regime had done away with several over-bridges and underpasses on many crucial roads, leading to a high number of accidents at several places, he said.
